Higher Ground

Keohane Nannerl O. Keohane

Description

Nannerl O. Keohane is one of the most widely respected leaders in higher education. A political theorist who served as President of Wellesley College and Duke University, she has firsthand knowledge of the challenges facing modern universities: rising costs, the temptations of "corporatization," consumerist students, nomadic faculty members, and a bewildering wave of new technologies. Her views on these issues and on the role and future of higher education are captured in Higher Ground, a collection of speeches and essays that she wrote over a twenty-year period.Keohane regards colleges and universities as intergenerational partnerships in learning and discovery, whose compelling purposes include not only teaching and research but also service to society. Their mission is to equip students with a moral education, not simply preparation for a career or professional school.But the modern era has presented universities and their leadership with unprecedented new challenges. Keohane worries about access to education in a world of rising costs and increasing economic inequality, and about threats to academic freedom and expressions of opinion on campus. She considers diversity as a key educational tool in our increasingly pluralistic campuses, ponders the impact of information technologies on the university's core mission, and explores the challenges facing universities as they become more "global" institutions, serving far-flung constituencies while at the same time contributing to the cities and towns that are their institutional homes.Reflecting on the role of contemporary university leaders, Keohane asserts that while they have many problems to grapple with, they will find creative ways of dealing with them, just as their predecessors have done.

Sujets

• USA
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 25 avril 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822387770
• Langue: English

Extrait

Higher Ground

D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S

Durham and London

2006

Higher Ground

Ethics and Leadership in the Modern University

N A N N E R L O . K E O H A N E

∫ 2006 U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S SD U K E All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Designed by C. H. Westmoreland Typeset in ITC Stone by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Keohane, Nannerl O., 1940– Higher ground : ethics and leadership in the modern university / Nannerl O. Keohane. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn0-8223-3786-x(cloth : alk. paper) 1. Education, Higher—Administration. 2. Education, Higher—Moral and ethical aspects. 3. Education, Higher—Aims and objectives. I. Title. lb2341.k39 2006 174%.9378—dc22 2005030739

Duke University Press gratefully acknowledges the support of trustee emerita Dorothy Lewis Simpson W’46 and W. Hunter Simpson, who have contributed generously toward the production and distribution of this book.

Contents

vii 1

37 52 59 84

98 112 120

140 157 178 187 192

209 218 229 241 250 253

263 277

Acknowledgments

Introduction

P A R T I Articles and Speeches Collaboration and Leadership: Are They in Conflict? The University in the Twenty-first Century The Mission of the Research University

Pro Bono Publico: Institutional Leadership and the Public Good

Moral Education in the Modern University More Power to the President? The American Campus: From Colonial Seminary to Global Multiversity ACE Address: The Atwell Lecture The Liberal Arts and the Role of Élite Higher Education ‘‘You Say You Want a Revolution?’’ Well . . . When Should a College President Use the Bully Pulpit? Are We There Yet?

P A R T I I Duke University Addresses Opening Convocation Address Inaugural Address The University of the Future

Address to the Faculty

Threats to Academic Freedom

Founders’ Day Address

Notes Index

Acknowledgments

Each of these papers was written for a specific purpose over the past two decades. My editors at Duke University Press brought their considerable skills to bear in transforming a set of essays and speeches into a more coherent book, in a timely and efficient fashion. In preparing the book for publication, we have not brought ref- erences up to date, nor have we extensively rewritten any paper. We have corrected a couple of errors of fact, and to avoid repetition have omitted several passages that appeared more than once in the different papers. The editors have also made some minor stylistic changes in each of the papers, to alleviate grammatical quirks or eccentricities, and make the book more readable. These people at the press, including especially Ken Wissoker, Courtney Berger, and Fred Kameny, have been very helpful all along the way, and it is a pleasure to express my gratitude to them. Senior Vice President John Burness at Duke University first broached the idea of publishing these essays and speeches, and provided encouragement and support throughout. Deborah Copeland in the President’s Office kept track of all my Duke papers and helped shepherd the process from beginning to end. Paul Baerman, who provided assistance in speechwriting dur- ing my final years at Duke, suggested some of the prose in a few chapters here, particularly certain passages in the Atwell Lecture to the American Council of Education and the essay on ‘‘The Liberal Arts and the Role of Elite Higher Education.’’ In each of these in- stances, the conception of the papers, and most of the prose, is my own. And apart from this, the responsibility for the authorship of all the papers is entirely mine. Dorothy Lewis Simpson (W ’46) and her husband W. Hunter Simpson graciously provided financial support for publication.

Dottie was on the search committee that brought me to Duke, and she and Hunter became our good friends over the years. Fred Chappell was kind enough to grant permission to repro- duce his poem ‘‘The Attending’’ at the end of the Introduction. I am grateful as well to several publishers who allowed us to repro- duce other material; they are listed on the last page of this book. My husband Robert O. Keohane helped me think through the arguments in many of these speeches and essays and provided use- ful comments on drafts. Even more important, his staunch and buoyant support for my work as a university administrator was essential in making it possible for me to do my job. And his con- tinuing, deep involvement as a distinguished scholar ensured that I never lost sight of the major purpose of my work. As always, I am deeply grateful. The book is dedicated to my father, James Arthur Overholser, who found his vocation as a teacher only late in life but pursued it with great joy. More informally, he taught me a great deal as I was growing up, and launched me as a leader in higher learning with a lovely invocation when I was inaugurated at Wellesley in 1981. I know that he (and my mother) would have been proud of whatever I was able to accomplish as the president of two fine institutions, and would rightly have disclaimed any responsibility for the mistakes of judgment that occurred along the way. Finally, I want to thank Duke University for the generous sab- batical support provided to me while I was working on this volume, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences for making available its uniquely hospitable environment for schol- arly exploration and refreshment.

viii

Princeton, New Jersey

September 2005

Introduction

The papers and speeches in this book are about governance in higher education. They are held together not by a discussion of techniques of administration or a comprehensive philosophy of education, but by a set of deep personal convictions about Ameri- can colleges and universities and their role in society. These convic- tions were shaped by my experience as president of Wellesley Col- lege and Duke University, and my training and career as a political philosopher. As a political theorist, I studied reflections on power and community offered by philosophers across the centuries. As a president, I was responsible for many aspects of the governance of two institutions. These speeches and essays thus reflect a particular synthesis of theory and practice. The convictions that provide common themes throughout the book include a belief in the durable, distinctive character of univer- sities over time, as institutions that respond to deep human needs and aspirations. I regard colleges and universities as intergenera- tional partnerships in learning and discovery, with compelling moral purposes that include not only teaching and research but also service to society. Successful leadership in such institutions requires skills useful for leadership in any human organization, as well as an understanding of the distinctive character of academic life and a true spirit of collaboration. The papers reflect in several ways a commitment to diversity, and a serious concern about the implications of growing inequality both within and outside our institutions. And they include some guardedly optimistic specula- tion about the future of universities in our country and the world. It is often noted that a few European universities are among the oldest human institutions still flourishing today. They have been replicated closely on other continents, and although there have been major changes, the core enterprise remains recognizable over all those centuries. Such continuity is remarkable among human