Celebrating 40 Years of Service ... 1957-1997

The Georgia Center commemorated its 40th anniversary with the conference "A Celebration, with Conversations About the Future" for the field of adult and continuing education, September 23-25, 1997. Events and activities during the week highlighted the Center's past accomplishments and future plans.

The centerpiece of the conference was a "town hall" meeting with Harlan Cleveland, dean emeritus of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs of the University of Minnesota and president of the World Academy of Art and Science, also at Minnesota. A performance of "Those Fabulous Forty Years," a program of 40 years of Broadway music by the Center's own Masters Hall Singers and guest artists Norman Large and Victoria Strong, was also part of the conference activities, as were tours and exhibits.

The Cleveland discussion session, hosted by Georgia Center director Edward G. Simpson, Jr, and videotaped for broadcast (available upon request for a nominal fee; see address below), focused on trends and issues today, and their possible implications for higher education and other fields in the future.

Cleveland also discussed leadership, and what that means, and takes. He relayed information from his recent book Leadership and the Information Revolution (1997, published by the World Academy of Art and Science in collaboration with the International Leadership Academy of the United Nations University, pp. 63-65) about the "attitudes" and/or attributes a leader should possess in order to manage complexity, as follows:

• First, a lively intellectual curiosity, an interest in everything -- because everything is related to everything else and therefore to what you are doing, whatever it is.
• Second, a genuine interest in what other people think and why they think that way -- which means you have to be at peace with yourself for a start.
• Third, a feeling of special responsibility for envisioning a future that's different from a straight-line projection of the present -- because "planning" is improvisation on a general sense of direction, and the leader's prime function is to point the way.
• Fourth, a hunch that most risks are there not to be avoided but to be taken.
• Fifth, a mindset that crises are normal, tensions can be promising, and complexity is fun.
• Sixth, a realization that paranoia and self-pity are reserved for people who don't want to be leaders.
• Seventh, a sense of personal responsibility for the general outcome of your efforts.
• Eighth, a quality that I call "unwarranted optimism" -- the conviction that there must be some more upbeat outcome that would result from adding up all the available expert advice.

Harlan Cleveland

Cleveland's diverse career includes leadership positions in government, education, business, and volunteer organizations, including service with the United Nations and the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon Administrations; as president of the University of Hawaii (1969-1974); as chair of the Weather Modification Advisory Board (1977-1978); and as founding dean of the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. His books include Birth of a New World: An Open Moment for International Leadership (1993), The Knowledge Executive in an Information Society (1985), and The Global Commons: Policy for the Planet (1990).

In an afternoon session of "A Celebration...," Bradley C. Courtenay, head of the Department of Adult Education, School of Leadership and Lifelong Learning of The University of Georgia's College of Education, provided information on The Cyril O. Houle Scholars in Adult and Continuing Education Program. The program, created through a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is administered by the Department of Adult Education. It is named for Cyril O. Houle, professor emeritus of education at the University of Chicago, who is internationally recognized for his work in adult education. The first group of Houle Scholars will be announced in January of 1998.

For more information, contact:

Margaret H. Caufield
Department for Program and Conference Development
Georgia Center for Continuing Education
The University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia 30602-3603
Phone: 706-542-1585
Fax: 706-542-5990
e-mail: caufieldm@gactr.uga.edu

Information about Harlan Cleveland was gathered, with permission, from the World Wide Web site for the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs.

Web administrator:  webmaster@gactr.uga.edu

All contents copyright © 1997
University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education.
All rights reserved.

Last revised: January 23, 1998

URL: http://www.gactr.uga.edu/GCQ/gcqfall97/celebrate40.html