7 minute read
Ethical Leadership at the Heart of the Campus
with Dr. Sarah Fedirka
What is Watterson Center for Ethical Leadership (WCEL) and what is your role in it?
There are two similarly named aspects of this project: the Watterson Center for Ethical Leadership is the designation for the building that will house a majority of faculty in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) as well as what will become the Watterson Ethical Leadership Institute. The Institute will offer the programs, curriculum, etc. that we anticipate becoming an integral part of our campus culture and beyond.
Currently, my role is one of facilitator. I facilitate the working group tasked with designing the programmatic and pedagogical aspects of what will become the Watterson Ethical Leadership Institute.
What do you hope to accomplish in the near term and long term with the WCEL?
Within the next 1-3 years, we’d like to see the institute have its own space on Findlay’s campus. It is unlikely the Watterson Center building would be completed in this short-term, but the members of the working group know that we can begin our work without a new building—we simply need a space where we can be visible on campus. In the longer term, we’ll work to develop the institute’s programs and curriculum so that within five years, we are fully operational.
Shouldn’t leadership be inherently ethical? Why do we need ethical leadership in our present context?
Yes, leaders should inherently be ethical. Many are. Unfortunately, many are not. We can all think of leaders (today and in the past) who lead from places of ego rather than from places of corporate well-being. Some leaders seek power, status, money. While seeking these results does not make one unethical, leading from this place can tempt one to act from short-sighted self-interest, which often leads to unethical behaviors. These leaders are often easy to identify—think demagogue.
Where University of Findlay students and employees will more than likely need the grounding provided by the Watterson Ethical Leadership Institute are the everyday decisions leaders at every level are asked to make. The decisions that don’t fall into easy categories of “right” or “wrong” but live in a space of gray. Without education and the opportunity to practice making these types of decisions, as Billy Watterson told the working group, we fall back onto old habits. We might look the other way, for example, rather than confront an employee who needs correction because that employee is our friend. We might respond in a meeting out of anger because we have not had the opportunity to practice leading from a place of grace. These are the spaces where the Watterson Ethical Leadership Institute will do its work. We seek to equip students for meaningful lives and productive careers as ethical leaders in service to others.
In what ways is UF already teaching/guiding students toward ethical leadership, and in what ways could more be done?
The University of Findlay is already helping students develop as ethical leaders in many ways. Through a survey of our employees, the working group learned about the various ethical leadership as well as ethics and leadership courses offered across colleges and programs at all levels—from first-year experience courses to senior capstone seminars. Experiential learning is another way our students are guided in their development as ethical leaders. Students learn what ethical leadership looks like when working with patients in a clinical setting or when treating animals or when traveling within the US and abroad.
From the data collected through its employee survey, the working group has also learned that our campus-wide efforts to develop our students as ethical leaders are frequently siloed within a college or within a program. Important work is being done; the working group would like to see that work done with more intention and collaboration so that ethical leadership development becomes an integral part of our campus culture.
In what ways will the WCEL add to what UF offers to students and UF’s broader community?
Billy ‘96 and Brenda Watterson see the Watterson Ethical Leadership Institute as a means for University of Findlay students and employees to have a global impact. Quite simply, they see the institute as a way to equip our students and employees with the skills, knowledge, and dispositions to become ethical leaders who will change the world. The working group’s charge right now is to assess and then make more intentional University of Findlay’s current offerings in this regard and then expand out from there. Our purpose is to bring Billy and Brenda Watterson’s vision to life.
In an article in the Findlay Mag, Billy Watterson said that “ethical leadership, equity, and inclusion” would be at the forefront of conversations held by the WCEL, what do those terms mean to you?
To me, ethical leadership is inclusive. Ethical leaders lead from a place of grace and compassion. They know themselves—their own strengths and limitations—and they develop others to likewise learn their strengths and limitations. An ethical leader recognizes that to achieve a single purpose multiple perspectives are required.
In an interview with UF’s Lauren Wolters, you said that the WCEL is “a way of saying that the humanities matter on this campus.” Can you talk more about how the WCEL might reinvigorate the humanities at UF?
As the future home to the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) faculty, the WCEL building will help to reinvigorate the humanities at the University of Findlay through a new sense of presence; there will be a new building located in what is emerging as the heart of campus near the Student Life and College of Business building. While the white houses that quite literally house CAHSS faculty add charm and history to campus, these spaces are not conducive for education in the 21st century or beyond. CAHSS faculty are spread across campus, largely siloed by discipline. This does not allow for those moments of collaboration or innovation that occur when faculty from different disciplines interact.
In terms of programs and curriculum, the CAHSS faculty teach many general education courses that focus specifically on issues of ethics and leadership—philosophy, religious studies, history. Even in my own discipline of English, students are invited to consider the “big questions” at the heart of ethical leadership. Having an institute for ethical leadership that integrates these conversations into campus culture more intentionally will reinvigorate not just the humanities but the campus itself. The working group sees the development of the Watterson Ethical Leadership Institute as having the potential to create a paradigm shift in our campus culture that results in the intentional integration of the sciences and humanities, professional training and the liberal arts.
While “ethical leadership” is not explicitly Christian, do you see a tie between the WCEL and UF’s historical roots as a high ed institution founded in the Christian faith?
I find no better model of ethical leadership than Jesus. I think this assessment holds true for Christians and non-Christians. Ethical leaders inspire their followers (their employees, their students, etc.) to achieve a shared goal by modeling love in service to others.
As we move forward with the proposed merger of the University of Findlay and Bluffton University, the working group members look forward to learning from Bluffton employees and students. In particular, we seek to learn about Bluffton’s Peace Arts tradition. We see many areas for collaboration and co-creating. We seek to honor each campus’s heritage, knowing that ethical leadership does not “belong” to a single denomination or faith tradition.
