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Commentary & Woodrow Wilson Foundation News:

• James R. Appleton Responds to Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh's Lament on Silence of College Presidents on Public Issues
• Woodrow Wilson Foundation Announces Pew-funded Responsive Ph.D. Initiative

James R. Appleton Responds to Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh's Lament on Silence of College Presidents on Public Issues

In the Review section of the February 2 Chronicle of Higher Education ("Where Are College Presidents' Voices on Important Public Issues?"), Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, retired president of Notre Dame University, lamented that college presidents no longer speak out on social issues. At least in part he suggested that this absence of moral leadership reflected a timidity among current presidents. The March 9 letters section of the Review contains a response from James R. Appleton, president of the University of Redlands, that reflects the close ties ANAC member institutions have with the local and regional communities where they are located.

Wrote President Appleton: "I would like to contest the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh's essay. It represents the opinion of an educational giant of his day who likely no longer meets frequently with today's presidents and is not aware of the network that continues among us, or the work we do through our professional associations and in our local areas. It also represents the view of the rare president who had a cadre of colleagues within his institution who enabled him to spend his time outside of the university and the fray of daily institutional leadership. For him to speak now on behalf of the presidents of the academy at large is quite misleading.

I assert that today's college and university presidents are actually more active in the political arena, recognizing that—except for the few strong voices from the elite institutions of our nation—we can be more productive in working with our local and regional business and political partners in improving the social, environmental, and cultural milieu of this nation. I accept his belief that we are custodians of institutions where independent, ethical, and compassionate thinking must flourish, but this starts at home and then moves from local to regional, and occasionally to national and international issues."

Woodrow Wilson Foundation Announces Pew-funded Responsive Ph.D. Initiative

As a follow-up to the "Re-envisioning the Ph.D." project it funded during 1999-2000 that culminated in a national conference in Seattle a year ago, The Pew Charitable Trusts have awarded a grant to the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation to undertake a project titled "The Responsive Ph.D." This new grant will enable Woodrow Wilson to work with doctorate-granting universities in testing innovative new doctoral programs responsive to the demands of Ph.D. employers, the roles of Ph.D.'s in modern society, and the complaints of doctoral students themselves. Many of the recommendations that the project will consider grow out of the 2000 Seattle conference which brought together for the first time the academic, government, and private sector employers of Ph.D.'s; doctoral students; graduate school faculty and administrators; and national higher education associations to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of doctoral education and how improvements might me made.

ANAC has more than a neutral interest in the outcomes of this project. Representative particularly of the Masters I and II sectors of higher education, the largest employer of new Ph.D. faculty, ANAC members have a large stake in the capabilities and aspirations of the new faculty they employ. Especially important are the extent that new faculty understand the mission, expectations, and faculty professional model of ANAC colleges and universities and share values that will result in their personal and professional satisfaction in a comprehensive institution. ANAC is in the process of preparing a statement of the qualities and character its members seek in new faculty as a way of communicating both with doctoral-granting institutions and new faculty candidates interested in careers at ANAC colleges and universities.