BC Leaders Programs Ready for Change, Students Say

Barnard is searching for the perfect equation to refine its leadership program.

The Barnard Leadership Initiative, which has operated for years under the radar, will be overhauled to eventually be launched as the Barnard Leadership Institute, according to Barnard President Debora Spar’s inauguration speech. While the details of the institute are yet to be determined or announced, students’ experiences suggest the retooling was overdue. Students say that it has the potential to succeed as a resource, but has been hindered by a narrow scope and lack of publicity.

The initiative, which is a curricular and co-curricular effort to prepare women taking on leadership roles, is a combination of interdisciplinary courses and extracurricular activities headed by economics professor Alan Dye and Associate Dean of Career Development Suzanne Stein. For Spar, the challenge will be to publicize and retool the BLI—a program that some students say has lagged.

“There is vast room for improvement,” said Chelsea Zimmerman, BC’ 10 and Student Government Association junior class president. “The extracurricular aspect could be enlarged. We need more one-on-one seminars with alumni and with public figures.”

Zimmerman thought that the program’s academic requirements seemed too flexible, and said she hoped the classes would be reviewed before the institute’s launch. She also felt a lack of diversity in the speakers invited to present through the program.

“There has also been a resounding request from students at Barnard that we have more speakers from fields that aren’t political science and finance,” Zimmerman said.

For administrators, part of the task in developing the institute will be to explore how to best encourage students to take advantage of the program—and see whether there would be any merit in making some components mandatory.

“I’m not sure that the students would need to mandatorily take the Barnard Leadership Initiative if they knew the benefits,” said SGA member Katie Palillo, BC ’10, who added that students would see the advantages of participating in the institute on their own. “Debora Spar has expressed interest in talking it up—she’s in a position to do that.”

For Palillo, who expressed interest in taking a class taught by Spar herself, said the initiative, and future institute, could benefit from more promotion, as well as further integration into the broader curriculum.

In an interview several months ago, Spar said she may teach a course in the future.

In the meantime, Palillo said there should be “better publicity and a more combined curriculum between BLI and the general education requirements to make it a more active and well-known program. It’s amazing, and I wish more people knew about it.”

While Barnard Dean Dorothy Denburg says it’s too early to tell in what direction the institute will go, students were optimistic that it could succeed under the right instruction.

“This is going to be effective if it’s done right,” Zimmerman said.

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