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Good morning. Thank you David (Carter) for that wonderful introduction.
Let me begin by telling you how much Raymond and I enjoy this conference. Not only do we feel that AASCU is an organization that is vital to the wellbeing of public higher education, this particular gathering is especially valuable in that it permits us the rare opportunity to slow down the hectic pace of our lives, if even just for a few days. It allows us to come together as a community of educational leaders, to think and talk about what we do, to be part of a beautiful natural environment, and, perhaps most importantly, to enjoy the company of each other. It is not very often in the course of our own professional life that we are afforded such an opportunity and hope that you find it as enjoyable and sustaining as do we.
In thinking about what I wanted to share with you today, taking into account the unique nature of this conference and the suggested topic, Leadership for Significance, I decided to discuss leadership in a way that is most in keeping with AASCU's intention. I intend to avoid the traditional technical analyses of good and bad leadership ("The Seven Steps to Successful Leadership"), and instead focus on something far more important and a bit harder to deal with. I have entitled my remarks Leadership for Significance: Values Are Virtues, and in the next few minutes would like to share with you my view that significant leadership, leadership that works, leadership that energizes, affirms and benefits the community, is not an acquired set of technical skills, nor a cynical act put on to manipulate an easily duped audience. Significant leadership is, for me, the conscious and unremitting application of a values system, a values system based on the ancient belief that humankind is responsible for itself, that each one of us has a responsibility to care for ourselves, for others and contribute to the common good.
As is all too apparent, many who call themselves leaders wield power, but lack the values that should inform, direct and ennoble all their actions. From Enron, to WorldCom, to Adelphia, to pedophile priests, to corrupt politicians, our world is awash in glaring and horrible examples of leadership gone awry. As a result of these debacles, an already skeptical public opinion of those in leadership roles, has been driven even lower.
Even our beloved academy has not been immune. In the popular mind of today, higher education is often not synonymous with values. For many, higher education has taken on the characteristics of a strictly utilitarian, values-free culture that is solely dedicated to providing students the specific skill sets that will enable them to function in the economic world. Others perceive higher education as a place where trendy political opinions and popular ideological dogma have replaced any transcendent values structure. In many cases, and perhaps even deservedly, we, the leadership of higher education, are perceived not as academicians and stewards of the public trust, but rather as money oriented, power hungry egotists. As is clear to anyone who reads newspapers and watches television, the dialogue concerning higher education frequently focuses on waste, corruption and mismanagement; if values are mentioned at all, it is their absence that is noted.
While I would suggest to you that this popular perception is largely inaccurate, especially in terms of higher education, there has been enough damage done to warrant concern. There has been enough damage done to cause all of us who are in leadership positions to think deeply about who we are, what we are doing and why we are doing it. To promote that introspection, I would like today to depart from traditional scholarly procedure and instead of reading you an essay that has lots of facts, figures and recommendations, tell you a story. A story of my relationship with leadership, and what I have learned about it and myself. And, as with all good stories this one has a moral, a moral I will, of course, save to the end.
At the outset of this tale, I must give a finer point to the Values Are Virtues theme already introduced: I must tell you that I am biased. I am biased because I deeply believe that leadership, in and out of the academy, is a privilege. It is the privilege of serving others, of serving society. Significant leadership is not about wealth, recognition, power and prestige; indeed, ultimately it is not about material or worldly things at all. It is about knowing who you are, what your unique gifts are (we all have them), and applying those gifts to a life of service. The value, the ethic that I believe defines significant leadership is service, service to others, service to the common good. Not ascetic selflessness, but rather the joyful use of self to better the human condition. Indeed, the story I will tell you is the story of how I came to be so biased.
Knowledge and awareness can come at any time, anywhere. I would like to tell you of such an instance when on July 4, 2001, I read a prayer that was published in our state newspaper, The Richmond Times-Dispatch (one of the last publications I expect to find enlightenment). It was a prayer written in the year 1777, on a frigid winter's night, in a place called Valley Forge, by a man named George Washington.
Almighty God, Father of All Men:
To Thee we raise thankful hearts for deliverance from forces of evil.
Deliver us also, we beseech Thee, from the greater danger of ourselves,
Have mercy upon us and forgive us for our part in the present desolation of the world.
Awake us each time to a sense of our responsibility in saving the world from ruin.
Open our minds and eyes and hearts to the desperate plight of millions.
Arouse us from indifference into action.
Let none of us fail to give his utmost in sympathy, understanding, thought and effort.
Fulfill in us and through us
Thy glorious intention: that Thy peace,
Thy love, and Thy justice may enter into the regeneration of the world.
When first reading this prayer, I was struck by how it was not what I expected from a beleaguered general who was watching his ill-equipped and starving men suffer as his enemies remained warm and well-fed just a few miles away. It was not bellicose, it was not full of self-pity, nor was it self-righteous. Instead it was profoundly humane, it was wonderfully broad minded and aware, and it was a call for, as General Washington put it, "sympathy, understanding, thought and effort." It was, I realized at that moment of clarity, asking for exactly what I, a woman, a citizen, an academician and a university president, demand of myself and those I admire and follow. It was a call for nothing less than acceptance of a pervasive, caring and compassionate set of values - a values system that is as old as humanity, values that are present in virtually every wise tradition of our world. George Washington may have written this prayer, but its message could also have come from Buddha.
By way of sharing with you what I learned at the moment of reading that prayer, I will use it to highlight three of the core values that I believe characterize significant leadership.
First, the opening lines:
To Thee we raise thankful hearts for deliverance from forces of evil.
Deliver us also, we beseech Thee, from the greater danger of ourselves, Have mercy upon us and forgive us our part in the present desolation of the world.
Core Value #1
"Know Thyself"
Emblazoned prominently on the ancient oracle of Apollo at Delphi, are the words "Learn to Know Thyself." The Greeks of the 6th century B.C. knew just what George Washington knew. They knew that true wisdom is acquired through knowledge of self.
Both Socrates and Plato, to whom our intellectual tradition owes so much, dedicated their lives to teaching their fellow citizens to question and analyze their assumptions, to examine critically what they had always held to be true, and on the basis of that knowledge recognize both the strengths and weaknesses of their character and being. Plato, in his famous treatise The Republic, likens the attainment of self-knowledge to the emergence of a man from a cave where he had spent his entire life, shackled and staring at a wall. (This is Plato's famous Allegory of the Cave, in Chapter 29 of The Republic. /if you want to read it, go to http://plato.evansville.edu/texts/jowett/republic29.htm) The process of emerging into the world of sunlight is a long and torturous one, causing the man much anxiety and pain as he adapts to a new reality. And yet, the end product of the journey was the man coming to understand what Plato called the Truth, the truth about himself and the world. That man had become a philosopher, and his job, his responsibility, was to help others find the Truth.
I would suggest to you that as we speak about significant leadership, that the ancient Greeks and General Washington present us with a very important and timeless lesson: Leadership requires great wisdom, and true wisdom begins with knowledge of self. I would suggest that if we aspire to lead others well, we must begin by thinking deeply about ourselves, about our beliefs, our motives and our presuppositions. We must analyze, acknowledge and learn from each, determining exactly what our values and our gifts are, and how they can best be put to work in service of the common good.
Now, since this is a story being told for friends and colleagues in a relaxed and cordial atmosphere, I feel comfortable with using a personal example to help make my point about self knowledge and vocation.
I was born and grew up in Connecticut about 60 miles from New York City. I lived in a neighborhood where seventeen different languages were spoken. I know today that I was, in many significant ways, shaped by that neighborhood. In addition to my own family, I was raised by Czechoslovakian grandmothers, French aunts, Lithuanian uncles, Spanish cousins, Italian mothers and Hungarian fathers. I was raised by everyone on that street. Diversity was, and is, a vital part of me.
My immediate family was led by my grandfather, a gentle and gifted person who loved the Italian opera and whose creed was "knowledge is power." He shared with me his love of education and helped me appreciate everything from math and science to language and the arts. He was complemented by my father, a businessman who was ingenious and incredibly passionate about his life and work. I like to think of him as the last true socialist in the United States, in that as an entrepreneur growing up in the Depression, he fervently believed that there should be a more equitable distribution of wealth throughout the world.
I have always known that diversity, knowledge and equality are very important to me. I can admit that I often feel angry and upset when hearing about or witnessing bigotry, ignorance and greed. And yet, there were times in my life when I was working with people, sometimes very successful and powerful people, for whom these concepts were unimportant. I felt great confusion at those times and actually wondered who and what was right. It was not until I spent time putting those feelings in the context of my life that I came to realize why they arouse such great emotion and are far more important to me than abstract concepts. Respect for human diversity, love of education and promotion of social equality are my values, values that I cherish, and lie at the heart of who and what I am as a person. Undergoing this process of introspection took much thought, but I find that now, more than ever, this knowledge, and these values motivate, inform and strengthen me every day. They are my vocation, forged through life's experiences.
As we go about pursuing our leadership goals, I would suggest that we not forget what the ancient Greeks and George Washington knew so well: Learn to Know Yourself.
The next line from General Washington's prayer:
Awake us each time to a sense of our responsibility in saving the world from ruin. Open our minds and eyes and hearts to the desperate plight of millions.
Core Value #2
Accepting Social Responsibility
I believe that any leadership that may be termed significant, must be leadership based on accepting social responsibility. Dr. James O. Freedman, former President of Dartmouth College put it well in his 1987 convocation speech:
"For all of us, personal growth comes from many sources. But none is more important than a dedicated commitment to social and public responsibilities. Because we share a common society - indeed, a common world - with our fellow men and women, we share a common obligation to work to improve that society and that world. And such an obligation - the obligation to be an effective citizen - falls most heavily upon those who have been blessed by educational privilege."
But, this is not new. When Plato mandated that the responsibility of the true philosopher was to return to the cave and help others escape from their ignorance, he was emphasizing social responsibility. And by giving that responsibility to those who possess knowledge, he agrees with Dr. Freedman that "the obligation to be an effective citizen falls most heavily upon those who have been blessed by educational privilege." This places a very heavy burden upon us, the leaders of today's higher education community. Yet I would suggest that it is a burden that is a privilege to bear. It is a burden that cannot be ignored or laid aside. Service to society, contributing to the common good, is the heart and soul of leadership - it is what we are about, it is why we are here. It is our most important value and greatest responsibility.
I learned of this responsibility early in life, when receiving my primary education in a Catholic boarding school for girls run by the Sisters of Mercy. There, under the watchful eyes of the nuns, I learned not only traditional academic skills, but was also, perhaps most importantly, exposed to their dedication to service. This was without a doubt one of the most profound influences of my life. Here I was instructed by women who had totally given up the material life, not to retreat or hide, but rather to devote themselves totally to the service of their god and their fellow human beings. The Sisters of Mercy taught me that I should recognize and be grateful for all the many gifts that were bestowed upon me: home, family, health, intellect and almost limitless opportunity. And yet above all else, the Sisters taught me that with these gifts comes the profound responsibility to give back. Social responsibility is not optional with the Sisters of Mercy, it is part of existence as a whole human being. It is a value.
When I read about the failures of leadership that are so apparent today, I cannot help but think of the Sisters and their lessons. I cannot help but be thankful for what they instilled in me, and try every day to do for others what they did for me. I am proud to say that I work at an institution that makes this easy for me because the people I serve share my values. The mission of Longwood University, as defined by the Longwood community, is "to educate citizen leaders for the common good of society." More than a slogan or a marketing tool, "citizen leadership for the common good" is an institutional value.
I would like to read to you my institution's definition of a Citizen Leader and suggest that not only is it emblematic of one of our culture's most enduring values, it is also a definition of leadership for significance.
The Citizen Leader is a life-long learner possessed of a natural intelligence that has been developed and refined through rigorous participation in a learning-centered educational experience.
The Citizen Leader is dedicated to the concept of societal responsibility, continually acknowledging through word and deed that each human being has a fundamental responsibility to contribute to the wellbeing of his or her fellows.
The Citizen Leader has the ability to apply knowledge and learning in a practical and beneficial manner to the different situations and circumstances he or she will confront in life.
The Citizen Leader has respect for democratic principles, most importantly equality, civility, tolerance, honesty and duty.
The Citizen Leader is a catalyst for meaningful change.
I am proud of this definition of Citizen Leader. Not only does it represent my own value system, it represents the values of the institution and people I serve. It is what I am speaking with you about today - it is about Leadership for Significance. I think that General Washington, and even Plato himself, would be well pleased.
And lastly, from the father of our country, this short, but all important line:
Arouse us from indifference into action.
Let none of us fail to give his utmost in sympathy, understanding, thought and effort.
Core Value #3
Love
Sympathy. Understanding. Thought. Effort. Each important in and of itself, and yet when combined represent something much greater than the individual parts. When I read this portion of General Washington's prayer, I think of love. Love - that most sublime of human emotions, the emotion that binds us together and makes us feel warm, the emotion that makes us glad to be alive and at peace with our fellows, the emotion that symbolizes the brotherhood of man and the sisterhood of women and gives us hope for the future.
Love is something that I learned about early in life. I was extremely fortunate in that I grew up in a vibrant, passionate family where our love for one another was not at all reserved, and never hidden. There was never a moment that I did not know love, and the security and sense of well-being it gave me. It became, I know now, the center of my being and determined how I view the world. In addition to my family, the Sisters of Mercy also taught me about love, about a selfless, transcending love that is the mystical connection between all people. They taught me that we are all God's children. And my husband and children have only added to my repository of love.
In the final analysis, I would like to suggest to you that significant leadership is really leadership based on love. It is about leadership that knows and loves self (without being egotistical, arrogant or self-serving), and, above all else, loves the human community. For me, this means giving to back those I serve the same love I have had bestowed on me. In terms of the topic of this essay, leadership for significance, I believe that love is the essential, transcending value. It allows the leader to approach her work with a humanity, joy and broadness of spirit that is infectious and welcomed by all those with whom she comes into contact. It is uplifting, motivating and sustaining, and is the ultimate bond between human beings.
Now that I have used General Washington's prayer to describe what I believe are the central values of leadership for significance, I would like to move beyond rhetoric, and offer you a concrete example of what I mean.
At first, I thought of St. Francis of Assisi, the medieval Franciscan who, out of love and a sense of social responsibility, changed the face of the medieval Church by founding the first of the service-oriented mendicant orders.
I thought of Joan of Arc, whose courage and dedication to her god and people led her to accept death rather than betray her values.
I thought of Malcolm X, a man who rescued himself from life on the mean streets, who found Allah and who gave himself over to being a voice for his people. And lost his life in the process.
And I thought of the recently deceased Maynard Jackson, the first African-American mayor of Atlanta, the man who, as his daughter said "loved everybody" and used that love to bring the people of Atlanta together.
But we all know of these people, and since significant leadership is not limited to the famous and the well known, my thoughts took me in a different direction. To give you the best example I can think of, I would like to tell you about a man named Ed Smith.
Ed Smith is currently Professor of Psychology and Director of Institutional Research at my institution. He came to Longwood 32 years ago, fresh out of graduate school at Kent State, and has remained - despite many opportunities to advance his career elsewhere.
Ed is a quiet and very kind man. He loves teaching, he loves the contemplative life of the faculty member, and I think most of all, he loves numbers. Nothing less than a statistical genius, numbers provide Ed peace, comfort and a rational framework for understanding a complex world. He knows this and freely admits that he dislikes confrontation and contentiousness, and would much prefer to spend his time teaching psychology and analyzing psychological statistics.
And yet, because Ed quickly emerged as one of the most respected and well-liked men on campus, he has consistently been asked to assume leadership positions. First he became chair of his department, where he distinguished himself with his compassion and ability, bringing peace to a sometimes fractious group. Since no good deed goes unpunished, when his term as chair ended he was asked to assume the position of Associate Vice President in a troubled Academic Affairs office. Here, once again, he gave himself over to peace making and problem solving. It was as Associate VP that Ed became involved in institutional research and assessment, very quickly building a national reputation for excellence and originality. Ed thought he had finally escaped back to his department when I came on the scene and asked him to take over our IR office, which was in a sad state of disarray. Once again, he answered the call. At least this time, we gave him numbers.
Time and time again over the past 32 years Ed Smith has put aside what he would prefer to do to serve the Longwood community. He makes peace where there is animosity, he provides clarity in times of confusion, he makes people feel good just by being with him, and has forsaken higher rank and what some would call career advancement to remain with his people. Ed Smith has devoted himself to Longwood University, always being there when needed, working untold hours and always prepared to go the extra mile.
What motivates a man like Ed Smith to so give of himself? I have come to know him over the past seven years and can tell you that he possesses the very qualities that we have been discussing here today: he knows himself and knows where and how his life should be lived; he has a profound sense of responsibility to the community that gives him sustenance; and he truly loves the people around him.
It was no surprise, therefore, that when we began three years ago to prepare for our SACS re-accreditation review, Ed immediately took a leadership role. He was instrumental in organizing our self-study and played an active role on each and every self-study committee. Knowing how important the Institutional Effectiveness review was to the overall self-study, he gave it his special attention. For three years, he was everywhere, assisting everyone, doing everything he could to see to it that Longwood's self study was not just satisfactory, but exemplary. This, of course, was in addition to all his other duties.
Ten months ago, Ed Smith was diagnosed with cancer. He sought medical help all across the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Southeast, but was told time after time that nothing could be done. Throughout this process, Ed continued to come to work when he could, determined as ever to see the self study through. Three weeks before the self study team was due to arrive, Ed visited Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York and found a very accomplished surgeon who said he could help. The doctor wanted to move quickly and proposed a timeline - when Ed saw that it would involve him not being on campus for the re-accreditation visit, he refused to have the surgery until after it was over.
At first, I was quite upset by this and told Ed that he had to have the surgery at once. He refused. As we spoke about it, I came to understand something about this quiet, unassuming man: he had no choice but to be on campus for the site visit. His entire personal make-up and his entire life have been about giving to others, about giving to Longwood, and about providing leadership at critical moments in the institution's life. Not being there would have meant violating every value he held.
Ed was present for the self-study visit and it was due in no small part to his leadership and hard work that the reaccreditation team had only a few recommendations and awarded two commendations.
Ed had the surgery and appeared to be doing well, until three weeks ago when he was diagnosed with another tumor, this time a brain tumor. Ed Smith is now fighting for his life. He did what he had to do for his community, and for his people. He is us, and we are him. And that is leadership of significance.
In closing, I must honor my promise and make clear the moral of this story. The moral is that, contrary to popular perception, values are virtues in leadership. They always have been and always will be. The three I have identified here - self knowledge, social responsibility, and love - are extremely important, but by no means all. Each of us has the ability and responsibility to think deeply about our leadership role, to not just take the road of expediency or personal gain, but to always let our values set our course. We must be models for those we serve.
The work of the academy is vitally important to our society in that it has the awesome responsibility of teaching people how to think and how to live. Robert N. Bellah, a brilliant scholar known for his studies of American life, writes this:
The university is not only a place for specialized research and the acquisition of skills. It is also a "community of interpreters," including both teachers and students as they attempt to understand the past that defines them and engage that past in a critical dialogue about our present problems.
Learning in such a community is not a matter of acquiring skills or accumulating objective knowledge alone. It is also a process of critical self-reflection, about both ourselves and our world, that calls upon our hearts as well as our minds, and that has the capacity to change both ourselves and the society in which we live.
And so, if I may leave you with one thought, it is that we in higher education can make a difference, that we can change the world, and that we must continually strive to fulfill this last part of George Washington's request to his God:
Fulfill in us and through us Thy glorious intention: that Thy peace, Thy love, and Thy justice may enter in to the regeneration of the world.
Thank you.