Calling All Leaders
We are kicking off the academic year with an edition we think you’ll find particularly useful, especially those of you that are looking for ways to enter the administrative ranks of higher education.
In “Cracking the Cement Wall to the College Presidency,” assistant editor Kendra Hamilton profiles the American Association of College and Universities’ Millennium Leadership Initiative, which has helped approximately 60 men and women ascend to the presidency as well as to the positions of vice president, provost, associate provost, and other senior leadership posts within academia. The American Council on Education and NAFEO have similar programs, and Norfolk State University President Marie McDemmond started a leadership institute at NSU in efforts to ‘grow’ their own leaders.
Kristin Bagnato profiles leadership programs unique to the community college professional in “Brave New Leadership.” Kristin writes that with the “scores of baby boomers on the verge of retiring,” community colleges will be facing a leadership shortage as well. She reports that in addition to the traditional master’s and doctoral programs in community college leadership, there are distance-education programs, and day and weeklong seminars, just to give a few examples.
Speaking of retirement, we conducted an interview with Bertram L. Scott of TIAA-CREF, which is one of the world’s largest retirement systems and leading providers of financial services to the education community. Scott discusses how the organization is changing to more effectively respond to the financial needs of people like you.
The issue of leadership is an appropriate segue into our article about Barber-Scotia College. Tracie Powell speaks with the college’s new president, Dr. Gloria Bromwell-Tinubu, about the school’s lost accreditation. The North Carolina HBCU, like too many Black colleges, is going through tough financial times. Bromwell-Tinubu appears to be committed to helping the college get back on course.
While we’re on the subject of HBCUs, what is going on in Jacksonville, Fla., at Edward Waters College? Several administrators were fired abruptly for perhaps asking too many questions and or maybe asking the wrong questions. Black Issues correspondent Pearl Stewart speaks with three of the terminated employees who discuss how they were fired and the reasons they believe contributed to their dismissals.
In a series of three articles, we take a look at some high school and college students who are on their way to becoming leaders — perhaps global, academic or community leaders. I had the pleasure of speaking with three outstanding college students participating in the Goldman Sachs Foundation’s Global Leaders Program. Coming together with students from around the world to develop leadership skills and discuss world issues, the students said the main highlight of the program was simply meeting students from different parts of the world who are all concerned about the future and well-being of our global community.
Assistant editor Crystal Keels speaks with two 17-year-olds that Black Issues could well be interviewing again in 15 to 20 years. High school students Lynwood Walker and Dawn Mackey participated in the prestigious Research Science Institute at MIT this summer.
On the West Coast, Pamela Burdman covers the Youth Leadership for Change national summit held on the campus of the University of California-Berkeley, which engages young people, most of whom are residents of public housing, in the conversation about how communities are redeveloped.
I initially was struck by the vast contrasts in the student stories — Lynwood and Dawn spending their summer researching at MIT, and the youth summit students, many of whom, as one young man notes in the article, was the only teen from his community in a three-year period to finish high school.
While this issue may provide insights for aspiring campus leaders, we are reminded of the task we share in steering our young people into higher education.
Hilary Hurd Anyaso
Editor
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
