The Robert H. Atwell Plenary Keynote Address When the Middle Ground Is The High Ground: Free Speech and the University Presentation of the ACE Council of Fellows/ Fidelity Investments Mentor Award SUNDAY, MARCH 12, 2017 5:00 6:00 p.m. www.acenet.edu
The Robert H. Atwell Lecture Since 1997, the American Council on Education (ACE) Annual Meeting has commenced with The Robert H. Atwell Lecture. The lecture was named by the ACE Board of Directors for Atwell, who served as ACE president from 1984 to 1996. ACE Council of Fellows/Fidelity Investments Mentor Award* In 2005, as part of the 40th anniversary of the ACE Fellows Program, the ACE Council of Fellows announced the first Mentor Award, an annual recognition for the enormous role that mentors play in all Fellows successes. ACE solicits nominations and letters of support from former Fellows. To be eligible for consideration, a nominee must be a president or chancellor (or a recently retired president or chancellor) of an ACE member institution. In addition, the nominee must have been a mentor to four or more ACE Fellows. Selection is based on the following criteria: Commitment to leadership development, with evidence that the nominee has aided in enhancing the diversity and capacity of American higher education leaders through mentoring in the ACE Fellows Program Intentional mentoring Articulation of strategies and values that underlay decision making Evidence of transformational leadership Continuing relationships with the ACE Fellows Using these criteria to evaluate the letters of support, the ACE Council of Fellows Executive Committee makes the final selection. ACE is grateful to Fidelity Investments for funding this award and contributing to the Fellows Fund for the Future. *The American Council on Education (ACE) and Fidelity Investments are independent entities and are not legally affiliated. The recipients of the ACE Council of Fellows/Fidelity Investments Mentor Award are selected solely by the Executive Committee of the ACE Council of Fellows. Fidelity employees are not involved in any way in determining, selecting, or approving the recipient or amount of any award. The selection criteria and guidelines for the award may be obtained directly from ACE. 2 The Robert H. Atwell Plenary
AGENDA PRESIDING John J. DeGioia Chair, 2016 17 ACE Board of Directors, President, Georgetown University (DC) WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION OF KEYNOTE SPEAKER Molly Corbett Broad President, ACE WHEN THE MIDDLE GROUND IS THE HIGH GROUND: FREE SPEECH AND THE UNIVERSITY Teresa A. Sullivan President, University of Virginia PRESENTATION OF THE ACE COUNCIL OF FELLOWS/ FIDELITY INVESTMENTS MENTOR AWARD Molly Corbett Broad President, ACE Alexandra Taussig Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Management, Fidelity Investments Nancy H. Blattner Chair, ACE Council of Fellows, President, Caldwell University (NJ) 2017 ACE COUNCIL OF FELLOWS/FIDELITY INVESTMENTS MENTOR AWARD HONOREE Earl H. Potter III (posthumously) President Emeritus, St. Cloud State University (MN) Accepting the award on behalf of Earl H. Potter: Lisa Helmin Foss Associate Vice President and Associate Provost, Office of Strategy, Planning, and Effectiveness, St. Cloud State University (MN) ACE CONNECTS OPENING RECEPTION 6:00 7:00 p.m. Exhibit Hall (Independence & Liberty), M4 Level Sponsored by Fidelity Investments The Robert H. Atwell Plenary 3
KEYNOTE SPEAKER TERESA A. SULLIVAN President, University of Virginia Teresa A. Sullivan is the University of Virginia s (UVA) eighth president. Since taking office in 2010, she has led UVA through a period of significant progress. In fall 2012, she launched a planning effort to provide a roadmap for the university s future while gathering input from 10,000 alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, and others. This effort produced the Cornerstone Plan, a new strategic plan for the university. Early successes from the new plan include an endowed Data Science Institute, a major in global studies, and a minor in entrepreneurship. The university has overhauled its academic advising, and piloted the Meriwether Lewis Institute for Citizen Leadership. Under President Sullivan s leadership, the university has developed a new financial model to ensure stability and transparency, launched a substantial program in organizational excellence, and created a program to expand the full-time faculty in multidisciplinary clusters. President Sullivan has assembled a highly effective leadership team, led by Executive Vice President and Provost Tom Katsouleas, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Pat Hogan, Executive Vice President for Health Affairs Rick Shannon, Vice President for Advancement Mark Luellen, and a group of experienced deans, vice presidents, and staff. Working with her team, President Sullivan has prepared UVA to tackle the serious challenges in higher education related to cost-containment, affordability, student-debt reduction, faculty compensation, and the emergence of online education. UVA now has ongoing efforts, at both the unit and pan-university levels, to reduce costs, improve processes, and enhance efficiency, while protecting the quality of the academic enterprise. In 2013, President Sullivan proposed an aggressive plan to improve faculty compensation after many years of stagnation in faculty salaries. Under her leadership, faculty and staff have been encouraged to experiment strategically with new technologies. UVA s Applied Research Institute has extended the university s research 4 The Robert H. Atwell Plenary
capacity to include new partners. The renovated and energized Licensing and Ventures Group assists faculty, staff, and students in protecting and enhancing their intellectual property. In spring 2013, President Sullivan led the university to completion of its $3 billion capital campaign, and quickly announced plans to raise financial support for three strategic priorities: retaining and recruiting top faculty, restoring the university s Jeffersonian Grounds, and providing needy students with scholarships. President Sullivan is leading preparations for the celebration of the university s bicentennial beginning in October 2017. As part of this effort, she launched the President s Commission on Slavery and the University to explore and report on UVA s historical relationship with slavery. President Sullivan is a respected scholar in labor force demography. The author or coauthor of six books and many scholarly articles, her most recent research has focused on measuring productivity in higher education. President Sullivan is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She serves as chair of the Council of Presidents for the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges; chair of the Council of Presidents of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities; co-chair of the National Research Council s Committee on Improving Higher Education s Responsiveness to Regional STEM Workforce Needs; and as a member of the Advisory Board for the Northern Virginia Technology Council, the trade association of the technology industry in Northern Virginia. She is a member of the executive committee of the Virginia Business Higher Education Council and of the Business Higher Education Forum. In 2013, the governor appointed her to the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority. President Sullivan came to UVA from the University of Michigan, where she was provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. Prior to her work at Michigan, Ms. Sullivan was executive vice chancellor for academic affairs for The University of Texas System and a faculty member at The University of Texas at Austin. She is a graduate of Michigan State University s James Madison College, and earned her doctoral degree in sociology from the University of Chicago. She is married to Douglas Laycock, the Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor of Law at UVA. They have two adult sons. The Robert H. Atwell Plenary 5
2017 ACE COUNCIL OF FELLOWS/FIDELITY INVESTMENTS MENTOR AWARD HONOREE EARL H. POTTER III President Emeritus, St. Cloud State University (MN) From July 2007 to June 2016, President Emeritus Earl H. Potter III led St. Cloud State University with an understanding and support of its mission of providing an affordable, high-quality education for students from Minnesota and around the world. Through his work to prepare students for life, work, and citizenship in the twenty-first century, Potter established himself as a leader to envision the university as a driving force for progress and problem solving in the region and as a great pride for the community and state. President Emeritus Potter would have begun his next three-year term at St. Cloud State on July 1, 2016. Tragically, he died on June 13, 2016 in an automobile accident. He was 69 years old. In October 2016, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees conferred on him the status of president emeritus. Under President Emeritus Potter s leadership, the university strengthened its commitment to an integrated student learning experience. The university was energized by his forward-looking perspectives and his innovative approach to bringing about positive change with a dedication to improving retention and graduation rates among St. Cloud State students. His leadership steered St. Cloud State toward grounding every professional program in the university in a firm understanding of the needs of employers and graduates, while focusing on developing support for a broad liberal education for employees and graduates. He was dedicated to keeping the cost of education affordable for all students and to increasing the availability of scholarships. President Emeritus Potter brought his military background and support of veterans to campus and oversaw efforts to increase veterans services on campus. St. Cloud State has earned Military Friendly honors every year since 2009. 6 The Robert H. Atwell Plenary
His dedication to internationalization, inclusivity, and education abroad were also clear in his work serving students and the community. Under his leadership, St. Cloud State earned the 2013 Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization, the 2013 Heiskell Award for the university s partnership with the Universidad de Concepcion, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities International Education Award, and the International Program Excellence award for an international partnership that brought a delegation of Mapuche to St. Cloud State. His commitment to service was recognized by the St. Cloud NAACP with its 2016 Presidential Award in January 2016. During his tenure, President Emeritus Potter also oversaw the building of the Integrated Science and Engineering Laboratory Facility and the Coborn Plaza Apartments, an addition to the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center and the renovation of Case-Hill Hall, among many other improvements on campus. Prior to joining St. Cloud State, Potter was executive vice president and provost at Southern Oregon University; dean of the College of Business at Eastern Michigan University; dean of the School of Management at Lesley University (MA); director for organizational development and employment services at Cornell University (NY); associate dean for academics at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy; chief negotiator for management and head of the Department of Economics and Management at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy; a Fellow for the American Council on Education in the Office of the Chancellor at the University of Colorado; a Mellon Foundation Faculty Fellow at Yale University (CT); and a National Institute of Mental Health Fellow at the University of Chicago. Potter held a doctorate in organizational psychology and a master s degree in psychology from the University of Washington and a bachelor s degree in psychology with honors from Williams College (MA). He served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1969 to 1993 and retired at the rank of captain. President Emeritus Potter is survived by his wife, Christine Marshall Potter, and their adult children and grandchildren. ACE FELLOWS MENTORED AND NOMINATED BY POTTER 2005 06 Michelle Behr 2015 16 Lisa Foss The 2007 08 Robert H. Atwell Charles Plenary L. Lane 7
2017 99TH ANNUAL MEETING WASHINGTON, DC