Higher Education Administrator: Keeping the Teachers in Business
Kathleen McCartney misses teaching. But as dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Education, she finds other kinds of satisfaction. One of the first things she noticed when she took the job 18 months ago, for instance, was that a number of students were putting off getting married. Most of the time the partner worked, and the students worried about losing financial aid–especially since most of them are preparing for careers in public service and can't afford big loans. So McCartney did something about it. In 2006, Harvard announced that all doctoral students would receive a three-year fellowship, courtesy of a large undesignated gift from a donor. "The day we made the announcement, I saw relief and gratitude in the eyes of our students," she recalls.
Getting to moments like that takes vision, fresh thinking, and lots of cajoling. McCartney's job is to develop strategic plans for the future, and to accomplish that she'll meet with everyone from the university president to students and faculty in a typical day. To stay fresh, she says, "it is important to schedule some unscheduled thinking time, so that I can follow up on initiatives generated in meetings." It might not be the same as helping students find enlightenment, she admits, "but I am finding great fulfillment from my efforts to help the school move forward."
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