The Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded CIC a grant totaling nearly $2.4 million (the second largest in CIC history). The funding will support three programs: (a) establishment of a Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education over six years; (b) extension for another four years of the leadership development program on Presidential Vocation and Institutional Mission that encourages presidents and “prospective” presidents to consider vocation and its connection with the purposes of the institutions they lead; and (c) the preparation of a report on the 2005–2009 Presidential Vocation and Institutional Mission program.

CIC President Richard Ekman said, “Over the past several years, the Council of Independent Colleges has made a commitment to advancing vocational exploration as a guiding force in American independent higher education. The concept of vocation emerged as a significant factor from various sources and has been applied in different ways for different campus constituencies. CIC has identified three promising projects that capitalize on what has been learned about the theological exploration of vocation and how it can be adapted and developed to strengthen colleges and universities, their leadership, and the education they provide for their students.”

These projects include:

Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE). The Lilly Endowment grant enables CIC to establish a network of colleges and universities that wish to sustain campus efforts in the theological exploration of vocation. Through national and regional conferences, the development and exchange of resources, and participation in online networking services, CIC expects that participating institutions will deepen vocational exploration on their campuses. Institutions that have well established programs in the theological exploration of vocation will disseminate the results of their work through this network and help other institutions that wish to enter the conversation.

The Endowment previously sponsored Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation (PTEV) on 88 campuses. When that program closed, campus leaders approached CIC to work with them to sustain the constructive interactions that the Endowment had facilitated among participants. With a Lilly Endowment grant, CIC held a national conference in March 2009 to build upon the momentum created by the PTEV initiative. This conference, Vocation in Undergraduate Education: Extending the Theological Exploration of Vocation, opened the vocational exploration to colleges and universities that had not been part of PTEV and laid the foundation for the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education.

Among the goals of NetVUE are to share knowledge, best practices, and reflection on experiences among previously involved campuses and facilitate the incorporation of additional colleges and universities into this enterprise. For more information about NetVUE, visit www.cic.edu/NetVUE.

“We have discovered,” said Craig Dykstra, Lilly Endowment’s senior vice president for religion, “that structured programs that encourage and guide students in the theological exploration of vocation do indeed help them draw on the wisdom of their religious traditions as they make decisions about their futures and figure out how to lead lives that really matter. We have been approached by hundreds of colleges and universities seeking to enhance their educational programs by incorporating vocational reflection more intentionally into their curricular and co-curricular activities. We are delighted that CIC is committed to sustaining and extending this important conversation and helping colleges across the country to advance their educational missions in this way.”

NetVUE activities will be managed by Shirley Roels, CIC senior advisor for NetVUE, who is based at Calvin College (MI). Roels was the director of Calvin’s PTEV initiative. In addition to her NetVUE responsibilities she directs the Van Lunen Center, which offers executive management education for Christian school administrators and is a professor of management at Calvin. NetVUE will also benefit from an advisory group comprised of representatives from participating institutions.

Presidential Vocation and Institutional Mission Seminars. Four annual cycles of additional leadership development seminars will be held over the next five years for presidents and those aspiring to be presidents. CIC has already held six successful year-long series aimed at increasing the commitment of campus leaders to aligning personal vocation and institutional mission.

“Presidents who participated in the seminars have become more reflective about their leadership responsibilities and consequently more effective leaders of their institutions,” Ekman said. “Furthermore, prospective presidents, a number of whom have since been appointed to presidencies, report that the lessons they learned from the seminars guided their approach to the searches they entered. With a better fit between presidents’ sense of vocation and their institutions’ mission, independent colleges and universities are benefitting from more effective leadership.”

The American College Presidency as Vocation. This publication will consider the effectiveness of the 2005–2009 Presidential Vocation and Institutional Mission seminar program and examine whether participants’ experiences ultimately improved their institutions. William V. Frame, CIC senior advisor and president emeritus of Augsburg College (MN), with assistance from Richard T. Hughes, distinguished professor and senior fellow, Ernest L. Boyer Center at Messiah College (PA), will interview past seminar participants, seeking tangible evidence as to whether the program has made positive contributions to the satisfaction and durability of presidencies in America’s small and mid-size private colleges and universities. The results will be shared with presidents and prospective presidents, their spouses, and others in all sectors of higher education in a book, tentatively titled The American College Presidency as Vocation.

CIC expects the outcomes of these programs to include:

• A deeper understanding of the intellectual and theological substance of vocational exploration;
• An examination of the role of theological reflection and vocational exploration in a variety of institutional contexts;
• Shared knowledge, best practices, and reflection on experiences across participating campuses;
• Development of a network for sustaining an extended program in the theological exploration of vocation;
• Incorporation of additional colleges and universities into this enterprise;
• Increased attention in independent colleges and universities to the importance of the connection between institutional mission and presidential vocation; and
• Longer, happier, and more effective presidencies and greater satisfaction among governing boards with the quality of candidates for presidencies.