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Building Whole People, Whole Organizations, and Whole Communities

By Stephen K. Mittelstet

My life is my message. –Gandhi

Gandhi’s inspiration, true for the individual, is also true for the lives of the higher education institutions we lead, especially if we intend our students to be builders of sustainable local and world community, characterized by social equity and justice, economic sufficiency, and a healthy environment. In short, if how we conduct our institutions and our teaching-learning processes is at odds with what we profess, observant students will feel the hypocrisy, see the irrelevancy to their world, and very likely apply whatever they’ve learned more or less randomly throughout their lives. We must model the change we want our students to make in the world. . . .

Excerpted from the winter 2009 issue of The Presidency. To subscribe to the magazine, please call (301) 632-6757, or order online through ACE's bookstore.