In the 20 years since the CIC’s first Academic Leadership Program seminar, the topics and buzz words may have changed. But the goal – to develop the leadership and managerial skills of faculty on CIC campuses who have demonstrated exceptional ability and administrative promise – has not.
A comprehensive professional development program, ALP is targeted at addressing the challenges and opportunities that exist at CIC institutions for faculty who may be climbing the administrative ladder – or have an eye toward that step in the near future.
The program’s architects wanted to create a cost-effective professional development opportunity sensitive to the unique needs of CIC member universities, and organizers have tailored ALP’s format with that goal in mind.
Judging by the career achievements of its more than 1000 participants since inception, the program has a successful track record. Three of the current provosts at CIC institutions are graduates of the ALP program. Across the country, there are five university presidents who are former fellows. Many others hold positions as vice chancellors, deans and department heads.
“One of the reasons for the success of this as well as virtually all the CIC programs is a long history of cooperation among the institutions,” said Russ Snyder, CIC associate director.
Another one of the main objectives behind ALP was to increase the number of women and historically underrepresented minorities in academic administration. The seminars have averaged 50 percent men and women and about 25 percent minorities.
Each participating campus selects its fellows, and the process varies by institution. About five representatives from each university attend, with 55-60 total fellows in each year’s “class.”
ALP consists of three intense two-day seminars over the course of a year, rotated among the CIC campuses. The overall majority of the speakers are drawn from CIC institutions. In addition to speakers, the program features interactive learning such as case studies and group discussions.
Some of the subjects that were relevant 20 years ago are still a factor today. But ALP has kept up with trends and issues in higher education, and recent seminars have addressed such hot topics as student learning outcomes assessment, sustainability, conservation, engagement, space planning and globalization.
The program has received national and international praise, and has drawn guests from other academic institutions seeking to duplicate it. Last year, a representative from the Southeastern Athletic Conference attended a seminar as an observer; this year, ALP will host a guest from the University of Texas system, as well as a professor coming from Japan.
“Other institutions or groups of institutions wishing to undertake professional development for academic administrators look to us first in many instances, and in fact model their programs after ours,” Snyder said. “We must be doing something right because people keep calling and asking us how to do it.”
The 2008-09 ALP Fellows
University of Illinois at Chicago:
Stacey S. Horn
Brian Hosmer
Marieke Schoen
Mark Thomas Shanley
Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign:
Margareth Etienne
Isabel Molina
Stephen G. Sligar
Kelly A. Tappenden
Scott Walter
Indiana University:
Tracey Rowan Candy
David L. Daleke
Amy L. Reynolds
University of Iowa:
Jay D. Currie
Peter Hlebowitsh
Geraldine M. Jacobson
Minnetta V. Gardinier
Tonya L. Peeples
University of Michigan:
Theodore Goodson III
Susan M. Juster
Timothy A. McKay
Michael Spencer
Elizabeth Yakel
Michigan State University:
Matthew J. Anderson
Lynda Boomer
Leo Kempel
Michael Lawrence
Lucy Maillette
Donald J. Sefcik
University of Minnesota:
Joyce E. Bono
Heidi L Barajas
Thomas P. Gallanis
Louis G. Mendoza
Kirt Wilson
Ohio State University:
Terry L. Gustafson
Garry W. Jenkins
Allison A. Snow
Valarie Williams
Pennsylvania State University:
Lee D. Coraor
Colleen Toomey Lieberman
Timothy W. Simpson
Barbara Ann Sims
Marica Susan Tacconi
Purdue University:
Venkataramanan Balakrishnan
Jean A. Chmielewski
Robert F. Cox
Richard J. Kuhn
Shelley M. MacDermid
Catharine Scott-Moncrieff
University of Wisconsin-Madison:
Susan Elizabeth Babcock
Teresa C. Balser
Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell
M. Elizabeth Meyerand
Julie A. Washington
Eric Wilcots