It is a delight to see everyone here today. My thanks to the platform party, delegates, invited dignitaries, alumni and guests for being here at this celebration of Doane College. Thank you to the Board of Trustees, the faculty, the vice presidents, and the staff for making Doane what it is. Every school has a culture and that culture is a unique reflection of the people who choose to make that community home. Some of the greatest thanks need to go Janet Jeffries and the Inauguration Committee. I am only now fully appreciating the major undertaking that an inauguration entails. Thank you, Janet and everyone. Thank you to Jay Gilbert (and Laura Gilbert I might add), Kurt Runestad, and the combined Doane College Bands and the combined Doane College Choirs for their participation today. Thank you to the Maintenance Department for ensuring that our campus looks so beautiful today-like everyday. I wish to recognize Emeriti Presidents Phil Heckman and Fred Brown for being here. Between them, they have almost 40 years of leadership at Doane and I appreciate their support and guidance. And, finally, thank you to our students. You are the focus of everything we do and everything we aspire to. Doane College began in 1872, as the first four-year liberal arts college in the State of Nebraska. This ambitious and uncertain undertaking (at the time) set the tone and mission for Doane College - produce leaders who are willing to take appropriate risks in effecting positive social change. Thomas Doane, Chief Civil Engineer of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, had a vision of a Congregational college in Nebraska along the lines of the Yale and Harvard Colleges and worked tirelessly toward that end. David Brainerd Perry, the College's first president, was willing to leave virtually everything behind at Yale to assume the much riskier proposition of being president of Doane. Both individuals embody the core mission of Doane - "building knowledge, experience, and character" to prepare students to be leaders. To be sure, what that core mission meant in 1872 is different than what it means today. Doane continues to excel in its programs that develop leaders who have learned firsthand how to serve others in an increasingly global environment. The Hansen Leadership Program and Hall, the Honors Program, the Fulbright recipients, our strong programs for nontraditional students, the Undergraduate Research Program, travel scholarships, our Education offerings, the Midwest Institute for International Studies, and the number of internship and community service opportunities, to name a few, all uniquely prepare students to serve others in a leadership capacity. The theme for today is leadership in the liberal arts. It has been a delight to hear discussion on this important topic from Kenneth Ruscio, the current Dean of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies and president-elect of Washington & Lee University, his alma mater. Dean Ruscio reminds us that in this day and age, the liberal arts is not some antiquated or obsolete educational philosophy. In fact, we have entered a period in which the marketplace recognizes the intellectual agility that comes from the breadth and depth of a liberal education. This is because a liberal education provides students with a crucial balance of content knowledge (or raw information) and skills that ensures their ongoing ability to perform and excel in new situations-whatever they might be. To illustrate this necessary balance, let me refer to a famous, albeit fictitious, legal case. In the 1930s, Lon Fuller, a legal scholar most known for his work: The Morality of Law, created, The Case of the Speluncean Explorers, which tells the story of a group of spelunkers (cave-explorers) who become trapped in a cave as a result of a landslide. Though they have made radio contact with a rescue team, it becomes clear that they are likely not to be rescued before they die. It will take 10 days to dig them out, and they don't have enough food to sustain themselves for that period of time. The explorers ask a doctor on the rescue team whether they would survive 10 days if they eat one of their fellow explorers. The doctor replies, with some hesitation, I might add, that he believes so. The explorers then hold a lottery, kill the unlucky loser, and eat him. The remaining explorers are ultimately rescued and tried for murder in a commonwealth that carries a mandatory death penalty for murder. The case goes to the Supreme Court of this fictitious commonwealth and the 5 justices must decide-are they guilty and should they put to death under the mandatory death penalty? Ultimately, the Court is evenly divided, which means that the conviction of murder stands. You are probably wondering right about now what this has to do with Doane College , the concept of leadership, and the liberal arts. Please bear with me one more moment. Justice Handy, the one justice on the fictitious court who views the role of the law as a matter primarily focused on practicality addresses the particular balance between form or process and substance. He writes: There are, of course, a few fundamental rules of the game that must be accepted if the game is to go on at all... some adherence to form, some scruple for what does and what does not fall within the rule is, I concede, essential....But outside of those fields I believe that all government officials will do their best jobs if they treat forms and abstract concepts as instruments. In so writing, Fuller suggests that the law cannot exist solely as a pure form (or process for reaching decisions) or as pure substance (which is the actual decision). They require each other and one must pay close attention to both process and substance in order to develop a good judicial decision. This is an important point not solely in legal decision-making but also in higher education and the liberal arts. So, what does this all mean for our theme of leadership in the liberal arts? I would like to take these elements in order, first discussing process or procedural leadership within the liberal arts in this case and then substance or substantive leadership within the liberal arts. At one level, a procedural leader within the liberal arts continually strives for better ways to help its students appreciate and master those skills that we call fundamental liberal arts skills-analytical reasoning, critical thinking, and effective communication skills-just to name a few. Liberally educated students aren't just trained for one job or profession. In fact, these skills permit our graduates to succeed in whatever career they may choose...and they may choose several over their lifetime. They have the intellectual flexibility to evaluate their environment, chart new and appropriate paths in light of any changes, and then communicate them. They explore new areas of knowledge. They are innovative problem-solvers. They ask the right questions, critically challenge assumptions, analyze, and reach conclusions that may be tested. Though not substance, itself, these skills provide a process for thinking about any information that they confront. At another level-and this is what many of us think about-that of running a college-I define procedural leadership as an institution's efforts to create a structure of people and processes that enables students to receive an education consistent with the external world (which changes) AND the college's core identity. Process is, after all, the engine of relevancy. An institution can only stay ahead of social movements when the right people use the right processes to consider how any external shifts affect the institution internally. They regularly assess their performance with candor and ask how they can make better use of limited dollars. They hold each other accountable. A true leadership organization is comprised of individuals who ask: How can I be a leader in my particular field in a way that advances the common goals of the institution? An institution that can commit to self-examination is, in my view, a procedural leader. There is a beautiful African proverb that I believe sums this point up well: if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to far, go as a team. Substantive leadership within the liberal arts first requires success as a procedural leader because it is only through a healthy institutional process that one can identify the substance of what a well rounded liberal education should look like--particularly as our social environment continues to change. Substantive leadership relates to an institution's efforts, through its processes, to ensure that our graduates leave college with the requisite content knowledge to succeed in life. Dean Ruscio writes: Students must better appreciate how a liberal arts education prepares them to make a genuine and lasting difference in the world...liberal arts colleges have allowed moral and civic education to be divorced from the curriculum thereby compromising one of their defining qualities...it would be worth thinking how best to prepare students for a world in which most problems require ethical insight and moral reasoning, as well as technical and analytical skills. As a result, substantive leadership within the liberal arts means that an institution is constantly evaluating the scope of knowledge that our graduates should possess. To be sure, there are certain established, or at least, widely accepted elements to a liberal education. Liberally educated individuals confront and appreciate what it means to be human from both scientific and humanistic perspectives, particularly in a diverse world. They learn to lead balanced lives that encourage physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Through the connections they make between their classes, liberally educated students learn to take responsibility for their lives and engage in the world actively and thoughtfully. Their education prepares them to understand better the complexities of the world around them and themselves-who they are, what they believe, and why. The more varied their experiences, the more complete the picture they have. Indeed, it helps them find a meaningful balance between their personal interests and a greater common good. This is all crucial in aligning one's ethical compass. A liberally-educated individual acquires through learning those "deliberative, emotional, and social skills that enable us to put our general understanding of well-being into practice in ways that are suitable to each occasion." This practical reason is the never-ending ethical process in which we engage when we think about how our future actions could influence others in the absence of certainty. Ultimately, one goal of institutions that seek to be leaders in the liberal arts is to recognize that students need opportunities to apply their education to the real world. These experiences deepen the meaning of any classroom experience and render it real and relevant. What does it mean to build consensus or work within a group where many people have competing interests? What are the skills necessary to be an effective manager? How do you balance your own needs with those of your larger communities? How do you deal with conflict? These are not just hypotheticals but real issues that we all have to confront thoughtfully on a day-to-day basis. In conclusion, institutions that remain at the forefront of the liberal arts first have excellent processes in place to evaluate their programs vis-à-vis their external environments. Such processes ultimately ensure that their graduates possess both the "procedural" skills as well as the content knowledge they need to be effective leaders. This is what we are all about. Dr. Ruscio- Thank you again for having agreed to speak today and offer your very prescient thoughts about the future of the liberal arts and how liberal arts and sciences institutions can produce leaders of change. I wish you well as you move back to Washington & Lee University. Of course, turnaround is fair play and I want you to know, Ken, that I am prepared to be the keynote speaker at your inauguration next year. Thank you also to the panelists for enlivening the topic of today's symposium. I wish to recognize my wife, Rachelle. Without her, quite honestly, nothing else would be possible. I also wish to recognize my children, Madeleine and Ethan, for bringing such joy to life, and my parents and sisters. And, finally, I wish to thank my dear friend and mentor, Russell Osgood, for all of his support and guidance over our many years of working together. Thank you all for coming. I hope that you enjoy the rest of the day on our beautiful campus. |