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New Center for Leadership and Public Advocacy Plans Its Future

Faye Wattleton's talk officially launched the new Center for Leadership and Public Advocacy, but director Eva Paus emphasizes that "The center is still in the process of being built." A newly formed advisory committee is meeting regularly this semester to solidify the center's priorities, and already the broad outlines of its goals are clear.

According to Paus, who is also an associate professor of economics, the center's primary focus is "to educate students to be lifelong advocates for the public interest and to teach students leadership values and skills." Although the College has always produced leaders, Paus believes "it's a leap of faith to assume that because we provide students with an excellent liberal arts education that they're automatically destined to become leaders. The center makes the assumption that there are no born leaders and pays explicit attention to the qualities and values students will need to lead."

In whatever line of work students choose, they should "feel committed to becoming leaders and acting as leaders on behalf of the public interest to make a positive difference in their communities. Throughout its activities the center will engage in an ongoing exploration of what constitutes effective leadership and the public interest and what reasons and implied values are behind different understandings," Paus says.

The center's programs will "build on the existing strengths of the College," involving both curricular and extracurricular components, says Paus. Early goals include: incorporating leadership values and skills, such as persuasive speaking and arguing, into the existing curriculum; encouraging experiential learning projects involving public interest advocacy in a broad sense; sponsoring symposia on major issues of public concern; and attracting alumnae and other accomplished people to speak about different issues linked to leadership or the public interest. The center will be working closely with the Program in Speaking, Arguing, and Writing.

"By the end of the semester, we will have a set of priorities," Paus says, "and we hope to put on a major symposium this spring that would epitomize what the center could do."

Suggestions or comments on the center are welcomed and can be directed to Paus or the other advisory committee members, who are: Lee Bowie, Sheila Browne, Jane Crosthwaite, Steve Dunn, Avery Ouellette '98, Joe Ellis, Jim Trostle, Karen Remmler, Phil Jones, Preston Smith, Rochelle Calhoun, and Sandra Lawrence.