Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Steven Lerman joined the PAF weekly meeting on Tuesday, October 27 and led a case study discussion that touched upon the PAF professional competencies of creativity, perspective, and problem solving. Provost Lerman is planning on returning to the classroom after a brief sabbatical and will teach two courses: one on computational software programming for non-computer science majors, and another on case studies in higher education. Each case study presented in the course would reflect fictionalized versions of a variety of issues higher education administrators encounter on a daily basis.
Provost Lerman was hoping to gain insights from the fellows about how they would respond to a case study and what lessons are learned from engaging in discussions on difficult topics in higher education. Through the conversation, fellows were able to experience how senior level administrators make policy decisions. Each decision needs to be carefully considered in order to fully understand how it affects an institution’s credibility, image, and daily operations. In addition, policy decisions need to be extrapolated from single incidents in order to be long-term and consistent. Many of the case studies presented by Provost Lerman grappled with ethical issues rather than legal precedent, allowing fellows to understand the large role past experience and perspective plays into the decision making process. The discussion also allowed PAFs to creatively mold solutions to problems that may not necessarily seem directly related. In one example, PAFs discussed the possibility of hosting a daylong seminar on mental health issues as an opportunity to educate a large group of people in response to a small hypothetical incident on campus. Working through the problem solving process with the Provost demonstrated to the Fellows that diverse voices weighing in on key issues in a collaborative manner produces the best results for institutions at large.
The meeting closed with Provost Lerman offering advice for all in attendance, especially as PAFs prepare to embark on their professional careers: always be open to new opportunities to learn and grow as an individual. Try new experiences, even if you do not believe that you will succeed. Extract lessons from each new encounter and new opportunity to apply the lessons learned to other scenarios. Both new and experienced professionals can always learn something new from another individual, and those who succeed are the ones who are excited to listen.
