From the Editor
Bridget Keegan • Dean of Arts and Sciences • Creighton University • Omaha, NE
Richard Badenhausen • Dean, Honors College • Westminster University • Salt Lake City, UT
Del Doughty • Dean of the College of Liberal Arts • University of Southern Indiana • Evansville, IN
Sheila Liotta • Vice President for Academic Affairs • St. Anselm College • Manchester, NH
Brian Norman • Provost and Principal Academic Officer • Antioch College • Yellow Springs, OH
Brian Peterson • Vice President for Academic Affairs • LaGrange College • LaGrange, GA
May 26, 2025
Leadership, Common Good, Liberal Arts, Life of the Mind
Heidi Bostic • Dean, Helen Way Klingler College of Arts & Sciences • Marquette University • Milwaukee, WI
May 26, 2025
A brief introduction to four linked essays exploring how academic leaders can stay intellectually engaged and connected.
Intellectual Engagement, Academic Leadership, Intellectual Curiosity
Donna LaVoie • Dean, College of Arts and Sciences • Saint Louis University • Saint Louis, MO
May 26, 2025
This essay explores the evolving role of the “life of the mind” in academic leadership, particularly in the work of a college dean. While deans begin their careers rooted in disciplinary scholarship, the transition to administration often distances academic leaders from direct intellectual engagement. How might academic leaders reconnect with scholarly work through reading faculty publications? Making time for intentional engagement with faculty work can deepen an academic leader’s appreciation for interdisciplinary scholarship, can model intellectual curiosity, foster cross-disciplinary connections, and uphold the core values of a liberal arts education. The ability to maintain an active intellectual life is both possible and vital to academic leadership.
Academic Leadership, Creative Aspects of Administration, Intellectual Life
Daniel Press • Dean, College of Arts and Sciences • Santa Clara University • Santa Clara, CA
May 26, 2025
Can a dean have a life of the mind without continuing their scholarship or creative activity and if they don’t teach? An Arts and Sciences dean frames his primary administrative responsibilities as intellectual, creative and inquisitive in their own rights, independent of scholarship and teaching. A dean’s responsibilities include problem-solving, advocacy, and management, which can vigorously stretch one’s intellect and creativity in rewarding ways.
Leader Well-Being, Project Management, Self-Care, Work-Life Balance
Brad Elliott Stone • Associate Dean, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts • Loyola Marymount University • Los Angeles, CA
May 26, 2025
Having enough time to dean and live out the life of the mind requires a decision about creating slow time and sticking to it.
Leadership, Liberal Arts, Life of the Mind
Heidi Bostic • Dean, Helen Way Klingler College of Arts & Sciences • Marquette University • Milwaukee, WI
May 26, 2025
How might academic leaders overcome the technocratic paradigm and enable their universities and units to flourish? We must lead by example and show that the life of the mind matters in what do we every day. This essay provides suggestions about how to bring our most deeply held convictions to bear in our work, inspiring the next generation of leaders.
Civic Engagement, Innovation, Leadership
Jeanne Petrolle • Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs • Columbia College Chicago • Chicago, IL
May 26, 2025
Leaders in higher education can promote civic engagement and provide cultural leadership by initiating or expanding on-campus conversations about the role of religion in public life. Democracy depends on equipping students and members of our wider communities to think critically about religion.
Leadership, Faculty and Student Well-being, Generosity, Resilience, Thriving
Meredith L. Goldsmith • Professor of English • Ursinus College • Collegeville, PA
May 26, 2025
Kathleen Fitzpatrick’s new book, Leading Generously: Tools for Transformation takes on the fundamental challenge of maintaining a generous stance toward others in a time of scarcity. Using nonprofit leadership as one of her guiding examples, she re-envisions higher education institutions as organizations based on an ethos of “mutual aid,” rather than a business model. At this moment of threat to higher education, Fitzpatrick’s stories of “generous leadership,” like her suggestions on how to cultivate generous habits of mind, are more welcome than ever.
