W.M. Keck Foundation Awards University of Richmond $400,000 Grant For National Leadership Project
February 1, 2005
The W.M. Keck Foundation has awarded a three-year, $400,000 grant to the University of Richmond to integrate the teaching of responsible leadership across the arts and sciences curriculum of its campus and colleges around the country. Richmond will work collaboratively on the project with Claremont McKenna College and Loyola Marymount University, both of California.
Faculty and administrators of each college will develop and evaluate team-taught courses on responsible leadership in eight specific disciplines. Faculty development workshops and undergraduate research projects will be built into the program, and in the third year, the colleges will host a conference to introduce the concept to faculty from approximately 40 other liberal arts colleges.
At a time when concern for civic responsibility and leadership issues has increased, “The field of leadership studies as an interdisciplinary examination of how to affect change has greatly matured,” said Dr. Kenneth P. Ruscio, dean of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies and director of the project.
The Jepson School, founded in 1992, is the only undergraduate school in the country devoted to the field of leadership. Today, 150 Richmond students are majoring in leadership studies and another 177 students in other fields are enrolled in leadership courses. Claremont McKenna’s Kravis Leadership Institute supports that college’s mission of preparing students for responsible leadership in business, government and the professions. The Institute for Leadership Studies at Loyola Marymount educates students about leadership and prepares them for leadership positions. More than 900 American colleges and universities have leadership offerings of some sort, ranging from workshops to undergraduate majors to master’s level degrees, Ruscio said.
The project grew out of a Richmond course titled “Arts and Leadership,” which examined how leaders are portrayed in art and how artists shape the perception of leaders, said Ruscio. Other liberal arts disciplines that could contribute to the study of leadership and develop courses include economics, politics, psychology, science, history, literature and religion, he added.
All three colleges have a strong commitment to undergraduate student research. The grant will provide funding for three students to pursue research related to each new course, and students will present their findings in summer workshops in 2005 and 2006.
“Liberal arts colleges almost universally proclaim the mission of ‘educating future leaders,’ but the phrase has devolved into a platitude,” said Ruscio. “With this support from the Keck Foundation, we hope to demonstrate clearly and emphatically how a liberal arts education prepares today’s students for the responsibilities they will face as leaders in an increasingly complex world.”
Based in Los Angeles, the W.M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 by the late W.M. Keck, founder of Superior Oil Co. Grants focus primarily on pioneering efforts in medical research, science and engineering. The foundation also supports undergraduate science and humanities education. Its Southern California grant program provides support in the areas of health care, civic and community services, education and the arts, with an emphasis on children.