In Our Underachieving Colleges (2006), Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University, challenged higher education institutions to do more in providing an education more supportive of building character in undergraduates.
In an era promoting the science of learning, it is difficult to accept the continuation of myths and beliefs that undermine both student learning and academic institutions’ effective performance. Nevertheless,
Higher education is experiencing a rapidly changing and challenging environment. To succeed in better enabling necessary institutional and marketplace changes as well as creating maximum student learning opportunities, today’s academic
Many books and seminars exist that define the traits of successful leaders. There are also a number of survey instruments to assess leadership. And all leaders are subject to and
Almost every academic leader will have to successfully work through an experience that leads to considering separation of some member from the Academic Affairs team. The reasons for separation may
In recent years, there has been more attention given to the reality that most PhD programs do not prepare future faculty for college teaching. Even when college teaching is addressed,
Every academic leader invests time in strategic planning groups, presidential cabinets, councils of department chairs, dean’s council meetings, and similar regularly scheduled meetings. Academic leaders occasionally leave the campus for
For a long time, scholarly debate has differed on whether leaders can be developed or leadership traits are inherent. Are leaders born to lead? Or do leaders develop into leaders
Sometimes faculty development programs are inherited by an academic leader, and other times they have to be built. In either case the academic leader needs to heed some wisdom from
Strategic planning needs to be seen as a change process with a time horizon of three to five years. Anything less than three years is to be defined and acted
