Making the Transition From the Private Sector to Higher Education
By Dorothy Bland
When I moved into the higher education arena earlier this year, my family was ecstatic to see that my new position had been mentioned in Jet magazine. My mother thought I’d have three months off a year to play since I was “teaching.”
My response: No way. As director of the Division of Journalism at Florida A&M University, I’m a year-round employee with many hats. Besides being a teacher, I’m a coach, marketer, change agent, catalyst, sales manager, administrator, adviser, writer/ editor and mentor to more than 500 students in the School of Journalism & Graphic Communication. Overseeing a multimillion-dollar enterprise with an award-winning student newspaper, radio station, educational access TV channel, magazine and Web sites comes with the job, too.
Over the summer, I participated in several professional development conferences and found that “innovation” and “transformation” remain hot topics in higher education and news industry circles. Managing change is a constant challenge in both arenas.
If you haven’t had a chance to read U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings’ report entitled “A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education,” I encourage you to look at it.
The report reflects work done by Spellings’ Commission on the Future of
Higher Education.
