Clarkson University Associate Dean of Development & Recruitment, Selected to Participate in ACLS Leadership Institute for a New Academy

Jason Schmitt, Associate Dean, School of Arts & Sciences at Clarkson University was selected as one of 56 administrators from across the country who will participate in the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Leadership Institute for a New Academy (LINA), which was made possible through the support of the Mellon Foundation.

This new program will galvanize recent administrators who share strong academic values and a common commitment to accelerating transformational change with the skills, insights, and networks needed to strengthen the humanities and drive forward progress in academia.

The program also provides participants a forum to collectively reflect on and respond to challenges like retaining faculty of color, curricular and disciplinary change, and the allocation of institutional resources. This peer community will serve as a vital resource from which participants may draw support for sustainable change.

"I feel really fortunate to share camaraderie and a sounding board with such a wide selection of academic leaders from across the country with the common thread of higher education reform for community benefit," said Schmitt.

From January to July 2023, LINA participants will explore critical topics including the challenges of collaborative leadership; translating change from the local to the school and systems level; rethinking faculty reward structures and what counts as legitimate scholarship; expanding undergraduate study of humanistic disciplines; and techniques for balancing the multiple demands of administration, scholarship, and life beyond work.