President Hunter Rawlings talks with Kellogg Foundation President William C. Richardson at a reception May 9 at the Miller Heller House for college presidents participating in Monday's "Leadership in Higher Education: Questions of Tradition and Change" conference on campus. Robert Barker/University Photography
President Hunter Rawlings, Provost Don Randel and 38 key Cornell deans, faculty and staff members, plus some students, met on campus May 10 with Kellogg Foundation President William C. Richardson and educators from six other universities and colleges. Their agenda: to compare notes on some of the issues higher education is grappling with today.
Titled "Leadership in Higher Education: Questions of Tradition and Change," the one-day gathering attracted educators from community colleges, regional universities and nontraditional institutions as well as institutions like Cornell.
"These are interesting times for higher education," said Rawlings. "The environment is more competitive than ever before, and we find ourselves more in the public eye and less with the public's trust. We face the task of educating a diverse population at a time when the cost of a university education is no longer within reach of many. As educators we must work together to solve our common problems and meet our shared responsibilities."
Richardson commented on the conference's timeliness -- on the cusp of the new millennium -- and observed that the university as an institution has been with us for more than a thousand years. His talk on leadership led to the day's central questions: What should we maintain in higher education and what should we change to ensure excellence, equity and success in the years to come?
Richardson's talk was followed by a panel discussion that included the six college presidents: Denny Brown, Clarkson University; Tito Guerrero III, University of Southern Colorado; Mary Ellen Jukoski, Mitchell College; Barbara Viniar, Berkshire Community College; James Votruba, Northern Kentucky University; and Janice Friedel, a division administrator with the Iowa Department of Education who is a former president of Lexington Community College. All of them are past Kellogg National Leadership Fellows.
Viniar made a forceful argument for viewing today's students multidimen-sionally and taking into account their physical and spiritual well-being as well as their intellectual development.
Other speakers of the day included Thomas Vietorisz, an adjunct professor with Cornell's Department of City and Regional Planning, who gave a talk on the role of the academy in society, and a panel of students, professors and Kellogg fellows who offered five perspectives on tradition and change. Northern Kentucky President Votruba spoke of the need for universities to realign themselves in fundamental ways, including a re-emphasis on undergraduate education and a shift to make knowledge more cross-disciplinary and more focused on solving problems.
Conference organizer Terry Plater, associate dean of Cornell's Graduate School, was pleased at the conference's results. "I thought there was interest at the highest level for a discussion that included everyone who sits at the university table -- faculty, staff, students and community," she said. "There was enormous enthusiasm for talking and listening outside our professional disciplinary boundaries, and it was heartening to hear people's optimism for the academic enterprise."
Professor Ronald Ehrenberg, director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute, said he was especially moved to hear the six college presidents describe "their educational mission with such passion and commitment."
The conference was supported by a grant from the Kellogg Foundation's Office of Higher Education Programs. A video of the conference will be available through Cornell's Graduate School. For more information contact Plater at 255-5236.
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