It has been a tumultuous year for Hamline University. The crisis about academic freedom and diversity centered us in a debate that was reported across the globe.
Now a working group of students, faculty and staff are beginning an assessment process to discover what is needed to bring the campus together. The crisis has made us examine how to be a vibrant and relevant institution of higher education in today’s world.
Hamline University is poised for a phoenix moment. In mythology, the phoenix is a firebird that arises reborn from its own ashes.
It’s an important moment for Minnesota’s oldest university as it has the opportunity to rise up.
Hamline may not be unique from other private liberal-arts institutions in its needs for contemporary branding, a rich curriculum, met-budgets, and strong enrollment. However, what Hamline has faced in early 2023 has provided it an opportunity to “take the lead” in reimagining itself. And that makes it unique.
As is typical of colleges and universities, Hamline is led by a single president and many highly paid upper-level administrators (e.g., provosts, vice presidents, and deans). This is problematic in current economic times and interferes with clear communication and decision-making.
Hamline is poised for a new model of leadership, one that would not rely on the authority, responsibility, and power of a president. Rather, it has an opportunity to lift up and be a shaper of new ideas in higher education leadership.
There are successful models of leadership in the nonprofit sector that are worth exploring. For example, distributed leadership and shared leadership are models that spread governance among multiple people. These models provide systems of checks and balances, while recognizing individual strengths, experiences and expertise. These models allow multiple perspectives rather than those of a single decision maker.
Such models are not typically seen in institutions of higher education. However in the wake of COVID, political polarization, civil unrest and the rising costs of a college education, it is time to analyze and reconsider traditional structures.
Today it is necessary to prepare students for a pluralistic society and help them develop the political skills for taking action with civility. The rich traditions and contributions of liberal arts institutions to global society promote and nurture critical thinking, problem solving, and creative expression. We know that teaching has had to change, but equally important is that administration must also change. It is time for this institution to read the landscape and prepare for the generations that will come through its doors. Hamline needs to reimagine its own future, proactively rather than reactively.
What Hamline needs now is to move forward with greater faculty input and power in decision making of its programs and in the restructuring of its systems. It needs to push decision making down to those who know their disciplines and work with students daily.
Hamline’s mission is to create a diverse and collaborative community of learners dedicated to the development of students’ knowledge, values and skills for successful lives of leadership, scholarship and service. Collaboration, shared governance and community are foundational to the health of the organization and to education. This is communicated in Hamline’s mission and must be modeled in its operations.
Hamline needs to embrace new ideas that will spark from the greater freedom, clearer communication and shared governance that can result from a leadership change and adoption of a new, more effective leadership model.
We thank the Board of Trustees for the communication we have had these last few months. We call upon the Hamline community, including the Board of Trustees, to join in partnership with faculty in this effort. This could be Hamline’s moment.
Hamline’s phoenix has been through the fire. Now is the time for its rebirth.
The writers, all full-time faculty at Hamline University, are the executive committee of the Faculty Council. Jim Scheibel, professor of nonprofit management, is Faculty Council president. Bruce Bolon, professor of physics, is president-elect. Bonnie Ploger is a professor of biology. Jennifer Carlson is a professor of education.
