On leadership in higher education

When we speak of leadership and higher education, three ideas come to mind. The first is our obligation to create leaders and leading thinkers. We must show each new generation how to think and reflect, how to use limited resources and how to make decisions humanely and justis:

The second idea that comes to mind is more about creating opportunities for discussion and contemplation. The campus is the one place today where time and space are set aside for serious debate and inquiry. The campus is a place for ordered thought. The rules of scientific discovery and classroom decorum are not mere l9th century formalities that have somehow survived; they set the stage for true learning and true communication. So when we talk about leadership, I would like to think that the great universities view it as their responsibility to bring together scholars and students, to surround them with the best resources that can be assembled and to train them in the rules of discovery and argument.

Leadership will grow from this laboratory of inquiry. Intellectuals lead when they have a chance to be scholars and students; when they are freed to teach and learn. So when we talk about leadership, I think back on our essential mission of teaching and research. A university can lead when it hews closely to that mission, when it understands its role in our society to be one of creating a place for leadership.

Finally, when we speak of leadership and higher education, we must think about the university's role in contributing to public discourse. Where are the people in higher education today who speak out on issues that go beyond the walls of the university? In this country we have lost our public intellectuals, those men and women who can intelligently discuss issues that make a difference in people's lives.

I have been speaking about creating leaders within the campus. But we also need to think about which universities will be leaders in the world of higher education. Where will innovation and change come from in higher education? I firmly believe that leadership will come from some surprising corners. The great public universities in this country have learned to lead because they have been forced to defend themselves in an increasingly hostile and anti-intellectual world. Faced with declining support, public universities have had to show the world how important they are to the intellectual, cultural and economic life of this nation. Many public universities have become much more focused centers of excellence because various market forces have driven them to a clarity they might not have had to articulate before. I believe a number of our nation's public universities will join the circle of the leading universities of the world. Many already have.

One of the greatest dangers that private institutions increasingly face is their tendency to look inward instead of outward, to build walls around themselves as they try to cling to successes of the past. I do not want that to happen at Brown. Brown must be a private institution with a clear sense of public purpose. It must be willing to promote the sort of research and inquiry that contributes to public discussion and debate. Brown is as small as Rhode Island and as wide as the world.

Copyright New England Board of Higher Education Summer 1998
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