Higher Learning
by April Austin
"It's one thing to study higher education as a doctoral student; it's quite another thing when you're suddenly responsible for a $400 million operation," says the Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, Ed.D.'97, who took over as president of Chicago's DePaul University in 2004. To help prepare for the job, he attended the Harvard Seminar for New Presidents, one of the intensive summer programs offered by the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education (HIHE). That seminar operates under the larger umbrella of Harvard's Programs in Professional Education (PPE), which offers a range of professional-development and leadership courses for educational leaders.
Father Holtschneider wanted to start off his presidency of the nation's largest Catholic university on the right foot, so he turned to a trusted source for clear advice: the faculty assembled by the HIHE. "The best part is that they've been there. They can open windows into how these organizations work, even into how people fail, because you learn from that, too."
Joe Zolner, director of HIHE, says faculty members are carefully recruited. HIHE looks for personnel who are either current or past practitioners in higher education with "a keen appreciation of the challenges of putting ideas into practice. They are always thinking of how the knowledge is going to transfer back to campus."
Holtschneider recognizes the value of a continuing education program that combines practical experience with current methodology. As he assumed greater administrative responsibilities--first at St. John's University in New York City and later as executive vice president at Niagara University in Niagara, New York--he sent seven people to seminars at HGSE, with an eighth colleague attending this summer. "Wherever I have worked, I have encouraged and sent people to the HIHE," he says. "The program is designed to help people succeed as leaders."
In addition to the Seminar for New Presidents, HIHE off ers weeklong programs that track with typical career progression, starting with managers and moving up through deans, provosts, vice presidents, and other senior-level managers. A separate seminar for academic librarians has proved so popular that a waiting list has formed. About 450 people attend these higher-education seminars every year, according to Zolner.
The HIHE's appeal is also due to the broad mixture of participants in each of the seminars. "We try to create as eclectic a group as we can," Zolner says. "We look for diversity of job type, campus size, geography, as well as gender, race, and ethnicity." The result is a rich blend of contacts and an opportunity to "have your mind stretched," he says. "You'll hear perspectives unlike those you might hear on your home campus."
Holtschneider concurs with this assessment, saying, "People often work in one sector of higher education and don't learn about other sectors. Most of the time, you go to national conferences and you're only with people like yourself. The Harvard program is different; it's purposely mixed. And my day-to-day experience in Chicago is working with people and universities that are very different, so that's a good model."
For him, the most helpful long-term benefit of the Seminar for New Presidents is the rapport he continues to enjoy with fellow attendees. "The other new presidents have become a real support group over time," he says. The questions that come up in his job have an urgency that "opens you up in a new way," making his peers' insights and experiences tremendously valuable.
Holtschneider also appreciates the retreat-like atmosphere. "The intensity of the learning experience could not be had if you stayed at your own institution. There's just never time," he says. Zolner and his staff try to create an environment that keeps participants focused in the absence of the usual campus distractions. This isn't always easy, especially in the case of new presidents such as Holtschneider, who attended during his fi rst month on the job. "I cheated a bit," the DePaul president says with a laugh, "I used my cell phone a whole lot that week."
When asked if a week was a sufficient amount of time to thoroughly absorb useful information for his position, Holtschneider broke into another hearty laugh. "You can't get a president for longer than a week!"
Visit http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~ppe/ to find out more about Harvard Institutes for Higher Education or other programs offered by Programs in Professional Education.
About the Article
A version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2006 issue of Ed., the magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
