Message for University Leaders : Educators Urged to Resist ‘Rage for Specialization’

Colleges and universities must stop discouraging students’ leadership abilities by resisting the temptation to “let the rage for specialization crowd out breadth in education,” John Gardner, told a conference of higher education leaders Sunday night.

Gardner, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, addressing the Assn. of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, said that “if, despite all the contemporary obstacles, a spark of enthusiasm for leadership is ignited in any of our young people, our educational system may well snuff it out.

“Far from encouraging such young people, it leaves them with the impression that absolutely all of the society’s problems are solved by professionals, not by leaders,” Gardner said. “Our brightest young people passing through the graduate and professional schools absorb the ideal of the clean-cut professional, who would never, never soil his or her hands with the grimy, essentially political tasks of leadership.”

Gardner gave the keynote address to about 1,300 people at the annual meeting of the association, which represents the 27,000 trustees, regents and chancellors in command of 1,600 higher learning institutions. U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett will speak to the organization at the Sheraton Harbor Island East hotel today.

Gardner, who founded the consumer lobby Common Cause, now is conducting a five-year study on leadership for Independent Sector, an umbrella organization that encourages philanthropy and volunteerism. Gardner is co-founder of the group.

Endorsing a broad-based liberal arts education, Gardner said that “tomorrow’s leaders will very likely have begun life as specialists, but to mature as leaders they must climb out of the trenches of specialization.”

“Leaders must understand the needs and values, the hopes and fears of their constituents,” he added. “They will be wiser leaders if they understand the path that humankind has traveled, and the path that our own society has traveled. They must understand the customs and traditions not only of Americans generally, but of major ethnic and occupational subcultures.”

He also asked school leaders to bring their alumni back to campus at least every seven years for “renewal-refresher” sabbaticals.