Goal:

• Foster an environment within our institutions in which transformational leadership is recognized and rewarded across the breadth of our organizations.
  • During Phase I, MAC institutions identified leaders, administrators and faculty within our institutions who are committed to leadership development. Each institution created a committee or task force with the responsibility for focusing on issues of leadership development and change.
  • These committees conducted assessments of the various resources and activities for leadership development that already existed on their campuses. Since leadership activities for different populations had rarely been considered together, the resulting inventories provided recognition for existing strengths and weaknesses in the area of leadership development.
    
• Use the MAC institutional framework to propose transformational leadership programs and activities for both existing and future institutional leaders.
  • Over the course of three regional events and five national workshops, MAC members shared strategies for leadership development programs being sensitive to common and unique elements for member institutions to implement.
  • In particular, participants shared information and best practices related to service learning, development programs for department chairs, issues related to community responsiveness, and approaches to institutional change.
• Develop long-lasting programs within MAC institutions for leadership development.
  • The support for leadership development within each institution, and the exchanges of information among consortium members has strengthened the leadership development efforts at member institutions.
  • For example, during Phase I, Rutgers' LINC partner QCI -Center for Organizational Development and Leadership developed a training and mentoring program for department chairs which they then shared with MAC members. Through the regional meetings and planned project regional institute, Cumberland County College found greater support and inspiration for its new Institute for Leadership, Community, and Neighborhood development. Programs such as these will draw strength from each other and serve the region through the project proposed here.

Objectives:

• Link "centers of excellence" among the member institutions that can be used for dealing with specific leadership issues at member institutions. Examples include Cornell's Discovering Leadership program, the Institute for Community and Neighborhood Development at Cumberland County College.
• Provide training opportunities related to common interests, challenges, and opportunities emphasizing that institutional challenges are not idiosyncratic, nor are they permanent. The project will emphasize problem-based learning utilizing real (and when possible, regional) issues in developing future leaders.
• Establish a program for short-term visits, primarily but not exclusively, for faculty and administrators and students to spend time with a mentor in another institution, and observe how academic and administrative business is conducted.
• Strengthen internal networks that work across the institutions to foster leadership development through, in part, the administration of small grants in support of collaborative leadership activities.
• Utilize existing technology & distance education to build a highly collaborative project. Maintain an interactive web site for disseminating research findings, best practices, and other information on leadership development, particularly emphasizing regional opportunities for collaboration or participation in leadership development activities. The web site would include a bulletin board and agenda of events at each member institution and would provide opportunities for active problem solving using an interactive electronic medium. Connect distance learning capabilities to facilitate communication and make courses or programs on leadership available.
• Encourage each institution to build collaborative relationships with local businesses, community groups, or government bodies for the identification of cross-institutional leadership development activities that improve the leadership skills and deepen the civic commitment of leaders within institutions serving the public (higher education or community-based) within the mid-Atlantic region.

Some of this project's activities are:

• Link existing leadership programs and centers among consortium institutions to address specific leadership issues;
• Provide training opportunities utilizing problem-based learning around timely issues to develop future leaders;
• Establish a program for "leadership sabbaticals" primarily for faculty and administrators to spend time with a mentor in another institution;
• Administer a small grants program in support of collaborative leadership activities;
• Encourage each institution to build collaborative relationships with local businesses, community groups, or government bodies;

Desired outcomes:

• The development of a group of leaders, administrators, and faculty within our institutions who are committed to leadership development and to the civic mission of higher education.
• The development and sharing of leadership models, particularly models that emphasize responsiveness to community and societal needs and collaboration with external partners.
• A highly collaborative and sustainable program for leadership development in higher education that draws upon the resources and responds to the needs of the mid-Atlantic region.

Project List:

• Cornell University
  • Discovering leadership
  • Department chair program
  • Civic Leaders Fellowship Program
• Delaware StateUniversity
  • Community park/airbase project
• Delaware Valley College
  • Faculty development committee
  • Working with local chamber of commerce and local business leaders
• Rutgers University
  • Chairs luncheon
  • Assessing and Promoting Organizational Excellence
  • 'Contemporary Issues in Leadership' Lecture Series
  • Student leadership development program
  • Baldrige Goes to College Conference
  • Retired faculty association
  • Advancing Community Engagement
• Sussex County Community College
  • Orientation for new faculty every semester
  • Mentoring program
• University of Delaware
  • Center for teaching effectiveness
  • Leadership program for the undergraduates
  • Chairs workshops
  • New faculty orientation
  • Women's leadership program

   

Current status of project:

Annual progress reports from all MAC-LINC participants were due at the end of August. However, MAC-LINC participants had been exchanging information on a continuous basis both via e-mail and at regular meetings. At the May 20, 2001 meeting MAC-LINC members got together to discuss the upcoming projects and disbursement of the funds. The most current meeting was September 28, 2001. Members discussed the status of the annual progress report, as well as, updates from all MAC-LINC institutions.

Contact:

Audrey Helfman-Project Director
University of Delaware
217 Alison Hall
Newark, DE 19716
Phone: 302-831-1708
ahelfman@udel.edu

Oksana Paloni-Project Coordinator
University of Delaware
217 Alison Hall
Newark, DE 19716
Phone: 302-831-1708
oksana@delanet.com

Bobby Gempesaw-Principal Investigator
University of Delaware
234 Hullihen Hall
Newark, DE 19716
Phone: 302-831-2147
Fax: 302-831-8745
gempesaw@udel.edu

http://www.udel.edu/academics/mac-linc/index.htm

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If you have any questions or comments please contact Valerie Baten.

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