Collaboration in Presenting Community Leadership Development Programs: Two and Four-year Institutions of Higher Education Working in Partnership:

Executive Summary Community leadership development programs sponsored by institutions of higher education often emphasize the need for collaboration in leadership. The programs themselves, however, frequently exclude interinstitutional collaboration. Two and four-year institutions of higher education bring different assets to community leadership; by working in partnership, these institutions can create innovate and valuable programs which can more effectively address the evolving challenges facing communities today. Community college leaders are more likely to seek collaboration in addressing community needs such as leadership development. All institutions, however, should be open to non-traditional partnerships which can facilitate the training of leaders for a community or region. ********** "One of the most universal cravings of our time, is a hunger for compelling and creative leadership." - James MacGregor Burns Developing leaders for communities and community-based organizations through education and training has been one of the traditional roles of colleges and universities. In an era when the need for lifelong learning is emphasized by virtually all segments of society, institutions of higher education have often taken a lead role in programs to enhance the skills of people preparing for, or already in, notable positions of community leadership. The resources invested in leadership development programs by colleges and universities -- both in terms of time and money -- are substantial, and community leadership development is a fundamental part of higher education's commitment to community service. Institutions of higher education can play a variety of roles within community leadership programs. For example, they can develop and operate a program themselves or they can act as a coordinating entity for a consortium of community organizations (e.g., chambers of commerce, nonprofit agencies, local governments, major employers) which plan, develop, and implement a program. Further, delivery of leadership education is usually implemented by one of three methods: by teaching liberal arts, through programs that use multidisciplinary approaches, and through nonacademic (noncredit) community-based programs (Rost & Barker, 2000). There is a fundamental problem, however, with many of the community leadership programs sponsored by or based at institutions of higher education. While most of these programs emphasize the importance of collaborative leadership and the need to cooperate to address the complex challenges facing communities today, the sponsorship of the leadership programs themselves all too often involves only a single institution of higher education or one college in collaboration with non-academic organizations. The premise of this article is that in order to make comprehensive community leadership programs as effective as possible, institutions of higher education within a community should work collaboratively to plan, implement, and evaluate these leadership programs. The synergy created by bringing together multiple institutions of higher education, especially different types of institutions within the higher education community, can create leadership development opportunities that no single institution could possibly provide. Indeed, the ability to draw from the resources of both two and four-year colleges and universities leads to more complete and inclusive leadership programs. Interinstitutional relationships among dissimilar colleges and universities -- with different missions, curricula, resources, and community stakeholders -- can help to create community leadership programs which achieve more, receive higher evaluations, meet community needs, are open to innovations, and can be implemented at a reasonable cost. Although leadership defies easy definition, Chemers (1997) provides the following characterization of leadership, "a process of social influence in which one person is able to enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task" (p. …