John C. Ewing

How Today's Undergraduate Students See Themselves as Tomorrow's Socially Responsible Leaders

A new generation of leaders is needed not only to build local partnerships in today’s communities, but to assume all positions of leadership. Undergraduate students within a College of Agricultural Sciences at a large land grant university were given the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale (SLRS) to determine their self-perception of leadership according to the eight SLRS constructs: consciousness of self, congruence, commitment, collaboration, common purpose, controversy with civility, citizenship and courage through change. Results indicated a strong alignment with constructs such as congruence, consciousness of self and commitment, with slightly less agreement in the other constructs. Two important issues were illustrated. First, today’s undergraduates appear to be much more comfortable with diversity and conflict than once was the norm. Secondly, the citizenship construct brought to light a lack of awareness and desire to contribute to their civic responsibility. Implications include changes in leadership curriculum and implementation of service learning experiences.

Effective Leadership Development for Undergraduates: How Important Is Active Participation in Collegiate Organizations?.

Leaders are needed in all areas of life. A question arises, “Where do leaders come from and how do they develop the skills necessary to be effective?” Colleges and universities have been developing leadership skills since their inception (Astin, 1996). This study examined students in a college of agriculture to determine if students’ perceptions about leadership skills varied based on participation in collegiate organizations and whether a participant held a collegiate officer position. Results indicated 55% were active in collegiate organizations and 23% held an officer position. For the most part student perceptions related to the impact on leadership skill development did not vary between the groups and were “positive” in nature. It was noted that approximately 36% of all responses were