Leading the Engaged Institution

Leadership is a duty of presidents, provosts, and others responsible for the well-being of a college or university. The responsibilities of leadership are the subject of position descriptions and contracts, but the ways leaders enact these duties are matters of discretion. Leaders are differentiated by the choices they make. In leading engaged institutions, executives can easily master the rhetoric of involvement and speak to audiences inside and outside the university with disarming conviction, but they must hold themselves accountable for the authenticity of their rhetoric and the alignment of consequence with declaration. There is no better way to test one's convictions than becoming attached to the local community-- the neighborhood-- through personal and direct interaction: conversation plus action. And the committed must determine whether the institutions they lead meet the criteria and judgment necessary for classification as an engaged campus. (authors)