Press Releases

Home > Publications > Press Releases > Luce Foundation Grant

New CIC Program Aimed at Strengthening Leadership of Colleges and Universities

Luc Foundation Grant to Support Multi-Pronged Effort

WASHINGTON, DC – The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) announces a $200,000 grant from The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. to support several new presidential leadership initiatives. The two-year grant will be aimed at helping presidents at small and medium-sized private liberal arts colleges and universities address both larger challenges such as financial management and other issues, such as relations with boards of trustees in long-range planning.

To this end, CIC will create programs to provide information and ideas and establish networks of professional support.

“CIC believes that strong leaders make strong institutions, and has a proven track record in providing ideas, resources, and services that assist institutions in improving leadership expertise and effectiveness,” said CIC President Richard Ekman. “We are delighted that the Luce Foundation grant will enable CIC to build upon its current capacity to help presidents in improving their leadership skills and capabilities.”

The multi-pronged leadership development effort will begin with the following programs and services, with additional projects to be announced at a later date:

• A roster of consultants comprised mainly of recently retired college and university presidents who will be available to provide short-term assistance to current presidents in targeted areas that require specific expertise, including financial management, president/board relations, and crisis management. Consultants will be available either to give advice by telephone, free of charge to CIC member presidents, or to provide a few days of “live” consulting time on campus, with the cost partially subsidized by CIC.

• Presidential forums for groups of seasoned and new college presidents (from non-competing institutions), who will meet several times over the course of a year in convenient locations to share problems and solutions on a wide range of issues. “Leadership in the small liberal arts colleges is especially difficult,” Ekman said. “A college president can too easily become isolated, seeing big issues only through a local lens. These forums will provide environments in which frank and wide-ranging discussions about sensitive issues can take place, and where issues can be viewed from a national lens.”
• Travel subsidies to presidents and other institutional leaders of the less affluent CIC  member institutions to encourage participation in CIC events.
• Regional conferences of trustees and presidents to improve working relations and help prevent misunderstandings between the two. The day-long meetings may include outside speakers, but will have as their agenda mainly the issues that participants put forward. “Better understanding by board members would lead to better recruitment and preparation of presidents and to more effective leadership,” Ekman noted.

The late Henry R. Luce, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time Inc., established the Henry Luce Foundation in 1936. The foundation's work includes the interdisciplinary exploration of higher education; increased understanding between Asia and the United States; the study of religion and theology; scholarship in American art; opportunities for women in science and engineering; and environmental and public policy programs. Higher education has been a persistent theme for the foundation's programs, with an emphasis on innovation and scholarship.

Copyright ©1997-2008 Council of Independent Colleges. All rights reserved.