The one we will be focusing on is "Leadership: The will to excel with integrity and the spirit that nothing is impossible. 'A university both leads and is a catalyst for leadership. By its creation, expansion, and transmission of knowledge, a university leads society to beneficial changes. University faculty both demonstrate and teach leadership to new generations of students. The quality of a university's leadership helps to determine the quality of our culture. The University's challenge is to provide informed, ethical, compassionate, and respectful leadership'. Larry Temple, BBA '57; President, Ex-Students' Association 1997-1998."
Why are students of the University of Texas expected to become leaders in society?
The seal of the university features a Latin version of this statement of Mirabeau B. Lamar, second President of the Republic of Texas: "The cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy, and, while guided and controlled by virtue, the noblest attribute of man. It is the only dictator that freemen acknowledge, and the only security which freemen desire."
The goal of a "cultivated mind ... guided and controlled by virtue" reminds us that composing a self, building character, is the traditional focus of a college education. What exactly is meant by that? In 1984, Peter Flawn, President of U.T. and Regents Professor of Higher Education Leadership, discussing the purpose of U.T. in his annual address to the faculty, said "In thinking about this issue, I reread Cardinal Newman's John Henry Newman's The Idea of a University, a classic treatise familiar to all who are interested in higher education."
Newman's idea of a university was based on his alma mater, Oxford. Concerning character, Newman says:
When the intellect has once been properly trained and formed to have a connected view or grasp of things, it will display its powers with more or less effect according to its particular quality and capacity in the individual. In the case of most men [and women] it makes itself felt in the good sense, sobriety of thought, reasonableness, candour, self-command, and steadiness of view, which characterize it. In some it will have developed habits of business, power of influencing others, and sagacity. In others it will elicit the talent of philosophical speculation, and lead the mind forward to eminence in this or that intellectual department. In all it will be a faculty of entering with comparative ease into any subject of thought, and of taking up with aptitude any science or profession. ... He profits by an intellectual tradition, which is independent of particular teachers, which guides him in his choice of subjects, and duly interprets for him those which he chooses. He apprehends the great outlines of knowledge, the principles on which it rests, the scale of its parts, its lights and its shades, its great points and its little, as he otherwise cannot apprehend them. Hence it is that his education is called "Liberal." A habit of mind is formed which lasts through life, of which the attributes are, freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation, and wisdom.... Moreover, such knowledge is not a mere extrinsic or accidental advantage, which is ours today and another's tomorrow, which may be got up from a book, and easily forgotten again, which we can command or communicate at our pleasure, which we can borrow for the occasion, carry about in our hand, and take into the market; it is an acquired illumination, it is a habit, a personal possession, and an inward endowment.
Lamar's statement appears on the ceiling of the Hall of Noble Words in the Tower next to this one.
This statement is by the first President of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston: "The benefits of education and of useful knowledge, generally diffused through a community, are essential to the preservation of a free government." Houston's distinction between education and useful knowledge was a common one in the nineteenth century. Newman stresses that "education is a higher word; it implies an action upon our mental nature, and the formation of a character; it is something individual and permanent, and is commonly spoken of in connexion with religion and virtue." Newman elucidates not only Houston's statement, but also Lamar's stress on a "cultivated mind ... guided and controlled by virtue."
In other words, the State of Texas is investing in your education because your leadership is essential to maintaining democracy in this state and nation.
Here at U.T. you need to become aware of your pilgrimage, and of the truth[s] that you seek and/or have found that will set you free.
As the image of the scallop shell below the motto on the tower reminds us, particularly important are pilgrimage goals that can endow you with a compelling vision that inspires others to follow you. Hence especially valuable are truths that tap into that which is greater than the self, truths that enable you to make a contribution to society that can be thought of as your legacy when you are gone. Think of yourself as a freshman; as Newman says " when he is leaving for the University, he is mainly the creature of foreign influences and circumstances, and made up of accidents, homogeneous or not, as the case may be." Then, if she or he is a good student, she will have experienced at least one "sensation which perhaps he never had before. He has a feeling not in addition or increase of former feelings, but of something different in its nature. He will perhaps be borne forward, and find for a time that he has lost his bearings. He has made a certain progress, and he has a consciousness of mental enlargement; he does not stand where he did, he has a new centre, and a range of thoughts to which he was before a stranger... We seem to have new faculties, or a new exercise for our faculties, by this addition to our knowledge; like a prisoner, who, having been accustomed to wear manacles or fetters, suddenly finds his arms and legs free. ... But now every event has a meaning; they have their own estimate of whatever happens to them; they are mindful of times and seasons, and compare the present with the past; and the world, no longer dull, monotonous, unprofitable, and hopeless, is a various and complicated drama, with parts and an object, and an awful moral."
Consider to what extent you have transcended the accidents of being born in a particular place and time, molding your own character, finding your own truths that set you free. For example, what you would say to a visitor if you were a ghostly alumnus of U. T. and were asked 'What is your dream?'
In other words, if your life were to end now what would the torch represent that you would pass on to the next generation.
Specifically, what would you, as the old cowboy in the sculpture, Generations, in front of the Texas Exes, say to the next generation.
REQUIRED READING FOR FEEDBACK:
LISTENING GUIDELINES Covey on listening + reading,writing, speaking………….……80‐81 Discussion………………………………………………………..82 Listening…………………………………………………………83 Have You Tried Listening?...........................................................84
EMOTIONAL LITERACY Emotion Words Checklist…………………………………………………542‐549 Children’s Feeling Words…………………………………………………550 Vocabulary of Emotion……………………………………………………551 Intensity of Feelings Chart……………………………………………… 552
The word "love"
CLASS PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS:
"Class discussion rules: students who talk to others while the speaker is talking and/or encourage this rude behavior with a willing ear, will have fifteen points deducted from their class participation/attendance grade for each incident.
Egregious behavior such as sleeping in class, reading materials other than ours, using your cell phone, iPod, or computer during class, acting out, disrupting class, etc. will be subject to a thirty-point penalty for each incident. Students who insult, threaten, or harass others will have fifty points deducted from their grade for each incident, and be referred to the Dean of Students."
REQUIRED READING FOR DISCUSSION:
Everything about leadership above + anthology readings:
Negative vs. Positive Attitude……………………………………………..53
U. T. Core Values………………………………………………………………..67
Five Characteristics..................................................................................74
Willie Tichenor: Positive Attitude at U.T…………………………75-‐76
Leading Class discussion........................................................................82
Discovering the Leader in You…………………………………………194-‐204
Covey, Principled Leadership …………………………………….205-‐212
206 Service Orientation, Law of Love, Seek first to Understand
207 Focusing on that which is greater than the ego
208-‐210 Conscience, Character, …..
211-‐212 Left Brain/Right Brain
Covey, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness …213-223
213-‐ 220 The Whole-‐Person Paradigm, incl. Spiritual Intelligence
221 Compassion and Conscience
222-‐23 Ethos
"Harvard MBA Ethics Oath………………………………………………..323"
"Sisodia, Ethical Capitalism………………………….………………………….328
Cox, Ethics in Business Education………………..……………………….............329"
Emotional Intelligence and Leadership, Goleman…………..……………525-‐531
RECOMMENDED READING: Stephen Covey's books
