part 4 (conclusion):

Peter M. Rojcewicz, PhD                                                    September 19, 2014

Authority stems from a firm basis in knowing and acting. In the past, folk communities chose leaders for their virtues and wisdom displayed in organizing collective action. As such, the virtue of authority was an inner achievement and personal victory. The origin of power lies in culturally defined positions rooted in individual or group authority on which the community relied for resolution of questions of how to act wisely and effectively. True power means empowering others to act  with sagacious competence. Power of position without virtue of authority alienates members of a community, since people lack freedom to shape their lives.

 Academic freedom of voice and action is simultaneously constrained and empowered by “justice.” The just-ordering of personal aspirations and institutional obligations is required of a progressive leadership rooted in a firm basis of knowing and acting to mobilize collective action that serves essential truths, human development, and core institutional objectives. As such, leadership is an act of love and ethic of caring with a foundation in human relationships. Whatever gifts we can bring to the table are ultimately fulfilled in others. A primary aim of the collegium is to nurture this ethical ideal. In the collegium of my musing, I see distributed leadership in service of healthy development, mutual respect, and inter-relational being.

part 3:

Peter M. Rojcewicz, PhD                                                    September 15, 2014

Leaders can generate engagement of this freedom to participate in institutional direction setting and decision-making. Faculty needs to see evidence that the university is a true collegium that supports professional development and academic freedom. Leadership must ensure compliance with state and federal regulations, even while furthering university values and primary purposes in order to transcend those constraints. It must identify a workload as abusive and therefore unjust, if it fails to balance life and work in support of health and well-being. Such leadership cares for its employees beyond value as human capital or return on investment.

Finally, a just leadership presupposes self-regulation and self-governance. This means that we monitor our thoughts and behavior and command our impulses. Leadership in a collegium requires emotional intelligence that minimally includes the capacity to modify personal agendas, however briefly, on behalf of others. As such, leadership can manifest as mentoring, offering gifts of experience to others for their job development and general vitality. In addition, the civility of “getting along” must never be reduced to censorship.

To be continued.

part 2:

Peter M. Rojcewicz, PhD                                                    September 11, 2014

Driven by metaphors of battle, graduate schools train people to believe that intellectual stature results from critical assaults that demean others’ work, rather than from deep, empathic listening urequired for authentic dialogue. Yet learning and service obligates us to one another as institutional citizens within a community committed to free exchange of ideas in sincere hope of enriching each other’s understanding. In the spirit of Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy, we understand that hope as an ontological imperative of learning as liberation.

 Leadership that moves beyond mere power of office requires a capacity to confront one another with our freedom to pursue knowledge for its utility, inherent truth, and transformative potential. This brand of leadership emerges as a manifestation of humility to be understood as energetic service on behalf of others, avoiding the subtle coercions of self-importance, and co-creating desired futures. Historically, the origin of power lies in culturally defined positions of authority on which folk communities relied for resolutions of problems and disagreements about how to act wisely and effectively. True power resides in the ability to empower others to act wisely and effectively.

To be continued.

Peter M. Rojcewicz, PhD                                                       September 8, 2014

Leaders throughout higher education can engage self-reflection and personal inquiry to embody ongoing learning on the job and in life. I think of Gandhi’s insight, “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as in being able to remake ourselves.” The more self-unaware we are, the greater the likelihood of projecting outward our indolence, distorting relationships, destabilizing commitments, and dehumanizing others.

Global perspectives and human difference supports community above isolation that shackles the will and dulls imagination. A healthy academy is more than a collective ego or we go; it values participation as an intelligence and presence as a way of knowing. Knowledge by presence means we consider data in decision making and that we be fully available to ourselves and each other, embracing non-defensiveness, flexibility of thought, curiosity, suspension of disbelief, and a willingness to be changed by self-inquiry. A learning environment conducive to inquiry calls for leadership to model relatedness, structure belonging, and move action forward.

(To be continued)