The Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded CIC a $799,984 grant to conduct a seminar-based program on Presidential Vocation and Institutional Mission. This first-ever grant to CIC from the Lilly Endowment makes possible a three-year program designed to guide current presidents, as well as prospective presidents, in reflection about each leader’s sense of calling as it relates to the mission of the college that the president leads or might lead. William V. Frame, president of Augsburg College (MN), is the project director.
      Craig Dykstra, vice president for religion at the Lilly Endowment, said, “In Lilly Endowment’s work with liberal arts colleges and universities, we have found that students and faculty are benefiting greatly from opportunities to explore their own sense of vocation. Many college presidents have concluded that a similar kind of inquiry into the deeper meanings and purposes of their work would benefit them personally and the leadership of their institutions. We are delighted that CIC will be conducting these seminars.”
      A distinctive feature of the program is its simultaneous attention to mission and vocation as they relate to the role of the president. Each summer for the next three years, CIC will organize two, three-day seminars—one for presidents and their spouses, the other for prospective presidents and their spouses, where leading thinkers on these issues will serve as speakers and facilitators. Participants will discuss philosophical, theological, historical, and psychological frameworks for understanding vocation, and explore the question of congruence between their own talents and the institution’s deepest purposes. Among the questions they will address: How do leaders discern their personal vocations? How do presidents come to know institutional missions? Where do they find joy in their work? How can thoughtfulness of purpose in their leadership help to make institutions strong?
      Following the summer meetings, participants will consult by telephone with seminar leaders and attend a winter follow-up meeting. They will read selected essays throughout the program.
      In addition to William Frame as project director, the experts involved in advising, planning, and leading sessions at the seminar include Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, director, Quality of Life Research Center, Claremont Graduate University; Paul J. Dovre, president emeritus of Concordia College (MN); Jean A. Dowdall, vice president, Witt-Kieffer, and former president, Simmons College (MA); Duncan Ferguson, director, Center for Spiritual Life, Eckerd College (FL); Anne L. Frame, presidential spouse, Augsburg College (MN); Richard T. Hughes, distinguished professor of religion, Pepperdine University (CA); Douglas Jacobsen, distinguished professor of church history and theology and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen, professor of psychology and assistant dean for faculty development, both of Messiah College (PA); Stephen G. Jennings, president, University of Evansville (IN) and former president, Oklahoma City University, Simpson College (IA), and College of the Ozarks (MO); Melanie M. Morey, senior director for research and consulting, NarrowGate Consulting; Mary Pat Seurkamp, president, College of Notre Dame of Maryland; Shirley H. Showalter, vice president, programs, Fetzer Institute and former president, Goshen College (IN); Jake B. Schrum, president, Southwestern University (TX); and Raymond B. Williams, director emeritus, Wabash College (IN) Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion.
      Facilitating the 2005 seminar for current presidents, in addition to William and Anne Frame, will be Czikszentmihalyi, Hughes, the Jacobsens, and Morey. Facilitating the 2005 seminar for prospective presidents, again in addition to the Frames, will be Ferguson, Jennings, Morey, and Seurkamp.

Click here for more information about the program.