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Leadership Program Activities

In an effort to strengthen American colleges and universities, the American Council on Education offers a series of leadership and professional development programs and activities. Among ACE's most notable leadership development programs and activities are:

Programs for Presidents

• Presidential Seminars and Roundtables
  ACE conducts periodic and ongoing seminars and roundtables on emerging topics of interest to presidents. For instance, The Leadership Network for International Education, a group of approximately 200 presidents and provosts committed to advancing internationalization on their campuses, meets annually to discuss the leadership role in internationalization. A series of seminars on technology strategy, co-sponsored by EDUCAUSE, was conducted in 2003–04. In 2004, a series of Presidential Roundtables, held in conjunction with the Futures Project, addressed higher education's changing social compact with the states. Follow-up discussions focusing on competition and public purposes and on reclaiming public confidence are scheduled for 2006. In 2005, the most recent biennial meeting of the Transatlantic Dialogue, which brings together presidents from the United States, Canada, and Europe, was held on the changing social compact between the states and higher education.
   
• Women Presidents' Summits
  ACE's Office of Women in Higher Education periodically convenes presidential summits: In 1990 and 1993, participants prepared for the Beijing Conference; in 1996, the discussion revolved around taking the outcomes of the Beijing Conference back to the campus. The 2002 Women Presidents’ Summit carried the theme, "Living the Present, Shaping the Future." The summit looked at the expansion of the roles and responsibilities of the academic president and considered the synthesis and synergy between the woman leader's values and the future shape of an institution and its climate and resulted in the publication, The Widening Gyre.
   
• Summits for Presidents of Color
  Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity sponsors Summits for College and University Presidents of Color. These summits are designed to explore the challenges and opportunities of the presidency for persons of color, provide direct support and service to sitting presidents, establish a multi-ethnic presidential network, and foster collaborations among presidents of color and with association leaders, government officials, and higher education scholars and consultants.
   
• Presidents' Consultation Network
  A new initiative of ACE, the Presidents' Consultation Network will provide "just-in-time" counsel to college and university presidents, especially those in their first year or two in office, and assist with their immediate challenges and pressing problems. Such problems could range from how to handle the fallout from controversial speakers on campus to legislative initiatives that intrude upon academic freedom to problems with boards of trustees or campus governance. The Consultation Network will engage a group of former presidents to discuss presidential challenges, test ideas, and provide advice via phone to presidents looking for not only a sympathetic ear, but also an objective understanding and a potential source of expert referral, if a longer-term consultation would be helpful.

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Programs for Chief Academic Officers and Other Vice Presidents

• Institute for New Chief Academic Officers
  ACE's Institute for New Chief Academic Officers, designed for CAOs in their first three years on the job, provides practical executive leadership development through a yearlong series of meetings. The Institute enables participants to explore a broad range of leadership issues, including making difficult strategic and financial decisions, managing academic personnel, setting and evaluating institutional and personal agendas, leading change (and stability), and working with key internal and external constituencies. Institute participants convene three times during the academic year.
   
• The Internationalization Forum for Chief Academic Officers
  The Internationalization Forum is an invitational program designed to address the key leadership challenges of internationalization through a network of approximately 50 CAOs, who then can share promising practices and explore common challenges. The learning achieved through the Forum will be disseminated to a wider audience through a web site and web-based publication, and selected participating CAOs will be eligible to receive mini-grants to leverage innovation that advances comprehensive internationalization on their campuses. The Forum is supported by the Henry Luce Foundation, Inc.
   
• National Leadership Forums for the Advancement of Women Leaders
  The Office of Women in Higher Education has offered more than 65 National Leadership Forums. Each Forum brings together college and university presidents to work with women who are ready to move into senior administrative positions or presidencies. The three-day event offers discussions of issues and challenges surrounding leadership in the academy and introduces participants to a number of search consultants who prepare them to engage in the search process.
   
• Advancing to the Presidency: A workshop for Vice Presidents
  This new workshop for academic vice presidents provides an opportunity to individuals who will be seeking a presidency within the next year or two to gain valuable insight into the process of becoming a campus CEO. The two-day workshop focuses on presidential leadership, the CEO search process, contract negotiation, and successful transitions into the presidency. It is highly interactive, including candid conversations with search firm executives, coaching by current presidents from diverse institutions, feedback from mock interviews, and cover letter and CV/résumé critiques. Preparing to become a president requires a keen understanding of oneself and the search process, and a game plan for a successful search and the transition into the presidency.
  
  
• U.S.-U.K. Leadership Dialogue on Strategy and Practice
  ACE and the United Kingdom–based Leadership Foundation for Higher Education collaborate to offer a program for U.S. chief academic officers (CAOs) and U.K. senior higher education leaders on topics of interest on both sides of the Atlantic. This two-and-a-half day event provides an opportunity for US. CAOs to think about local and national issues in a wider global context and to network with U.K. colleagues

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Programs for Other College and University Administrators

• ACE Fellows Program
  The ACE Fellows Program is the nation's premier higher education leadership development program. It identifies and prepares senior faculty and administrators to become skilled in the leadership of institutional change. It is the only national, individualized, long-term professional development program in higher education that provides on-the-job experience as well as a didactic component. More than 1,500 higher education leaders have participated in the ACE Fellows Program since its inception in 1965, with more than 300 Fellows having gone on to serve as chief executive officers of colleges or universities and more than 1,100 having served as provosts, vice presidents, and deans.
   
• Regional Leadership Forums
  The Office of Women in Higher Education offers Regional Leadership Forums for emerging and mid-level women leaders who are ready to move into deanships and vice presidencies. The three-day events offer discussions of issues and challenges surrounding leadership in the academy, especially strategic planning, resource allocation, and fund raising. The participants are introduced to a number of search consultants who prepare them to engage in the search process.
   
• CLASSIC Series
  The CLASSIC Series is designed to bring scholars and administrators together to discuss diversity issues and consider strategies that will promote greater participation of underrepresented groups at higher education institutions. These meetings provide a forum for leaders of color to collectively explore the challenges and opportunities associated with the positions of chief academic officer or chief student affairs officer. They also provide a venue to explore public policy issues affecting poor and minority students. Special sessions on federal public policy offer opportunities for discussing ways to forge new alliances on critical issues and to leverage federal resources for improving the condition of minorities in postsecondary education.
   
• ACE National Network for the Advancement of Women Leaders
  The ACE Network, supported by the Office of Women in Higher Education and the ACE Network Executive Board of presidents and former state coordinators, is a state-based national network committed to strengthening women's leadership in higher education. In 2004–05, Network activities involved more than 10,000 women. Each ACE State Network offers programming to identify and develop leaders, advance them into more senior positions, and support women serving in these roles. The ACE Network (formerly known as the ACE/National Identification Program) relies upon the support of current presidents and is coordinated within each state by an appointed state coordinator and a planning committee. A special conference, held yearly in conjunction with the ACE Annual Meeting, promotes strengthened leadership programming in individual networks, cooperation between and among the states, and career advancement for the coordinators themselves.
   
• Women of Color Summits
  These summits, jointly sponsored by the American Council on Education's Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity and the Office of Women in Higher Education, address the issues facing women of color in higher education. Often described as offering a "chilly climate" to women in general, the academy has presented special challenges for women who are African American, Asian American, Native American, or Latina. These meetings provide an opportunity to engage in dynamic discussions with some of the nation's most outstanding academic leaders of color.
   
• The Department Chair Services
  Each year, ACE offers three Department Chair workshops specifically designed to develop the leadership capacities of newly appointed department, division, and program heads and to renew the skills and enthusiasm of experienced heads. Topics include leadership, mission-based change, evaluating teaching, performance counseling, team-based leadership, and conflict management. In July 2006, ACE will offer for the first time a special workshop devoted to conflict management. A complementary web site on departmental leadership, the Department Chair Online Resource Center, also has been fully developed. By special arrangement, ACE additionally offers customized workshops for individual campuses, groups of cooperating institutions, associations, and consortia.

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This page last updated on 03/03/2009