The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) offers an annual workshop for a small cohort of faculty from around the country who have demonstrated a commitment to inclusive leadership. This year, a Siena faculty member was selected to take part.
Marcela Garcés, Ph.D., professor of Spanish and department chair of modern languages and classics, participated in the three-day Faculty Leadership Academy in Baltimore in July. Back here on campus, she’ll be sharing what she learned about the concept of “the caring university” with her Siena colleagues.
The cohort of 30 professors in a range of academic disciplines represented different types of institutions: public, private; small, mid-size and large; liberal arts and research. Application to the academy is competitive: only one in every four applicants is accepted. Attendees discussed and developed training strategies for campus leadership roles such as dean or department chair.
“It was helpful to have perspectives from different types of colleges and universities,” said Garcés.
Attendees accessed an online curriculum before the conference started so they were ready to hit the ground running to review realistic case studies and sketch out action plans. They completed the Clifton Strengths assessment to determine each person’s top professional attributes – and blind spots – and how they can be applied or worked around.
“The case studies were very realistic,” she said. “We learned to embrace the concept of ‘critical hope,’ where you recognize the messy nature of problems and keep your focus on a solution.”
Garcés said the conference gave her renewed understanding of and appreciation for the wide range of operations involved at a university. Thanks to its Franciscan mission, Siena already has a major head start on creating the kind of caring university model that is the goal of the academy.
“We have a good system in place here at Siena,” she said. “Things are very organized, and people can readily access information they need.”
CIC covers nearly all the costs of attending the conference thanks to a ngrant from the Mellon Foundation.