Balancing Act
Chancellor advocates meshing civic engagement into academic studies
Ferrari hopes to include leadership in classroom
By Amy Johnson
Staff Reporter

Chancellor Michael Ferrari said he is pleased that a record 850 students are enrolled in TCU Leadership Center classes this semester.

But Ferrari said he’d be happier if leadership classes were integrated into the core curriculum for credit.

Civic engagement is central to the intellectual core of the university, he said.

“If we are going to help people educate students on how to be ethical leaders in their disciplines, then we shouldn’t have some artificial divide here on how it actually happens,” Ferrari said.

Ferrari said he would like to see the Leadership Center work with departments to incorporate civic engagement in the classroom. The two worlds of academics and leadership can be balanced, he said, without increasing the number of hours required for graduation.

Once faculty are finished re-writing the core curriculum, Ferrari hopes it can work on determining a way to integrate leadership and academics.

This should happen by creating dialogue between faculty, staff and students, he said.

“It takes a lot of work, but we have very creative people here, and I think if they put their heads together we could solve this,” he said.

Many faculty and staff agree.

The classroom can provide an experimental setting for learning and incorporating civic engagement into the curriculum focus, said Penny Woodcock, Leadership Center coordinator.

“We need to look at how we are developing societal leaders both in the classroom and out,” she said. “It is our responsibility as an institution to educate students and give them the tools and values needed to interact in the world.”

The primary role of the leadership center is to support the academic mission and work with it, said Cynthia Walsh, acting director of the TCU Leadership Center.

“The purpose of leadership development is to give students additional opportunities to practice and apply the knowledge and skills they learn in the classroom,” Walsh said. “The Leadership Center strives to provide students with activities and programs that are not only sensitive and supportive of the demands of students’ academic life, but enhance students’ ability to critically think about a variety of issues facing their community from a leadership standpoint.”

Ferrari said no formal committee has been appointed to review the issue at this time, but that faculty and others are starting to talk and some groups are starting to share publications and ideas.

“Other faculty (members) are coming forward now,” he said. “It’s not only a student affairs initiative. It’s starting to bubble from the bottom up.”