Lowell Davis got a handful of ideas from UC Davis to take back to his home institution in just a few days.
“I’ve been here a week and I’m loving it,” he said.
Davis, associate vice chancellor for student success at Western Carolina University, is spending the academic year at UC Davis working with Chancellor Gary S. May and Provost Ralph J. Hexter as a fellow with the American Council on Education, or ACE. The fellowship sends emerging leaders in higher education to another campus, where they spend time learning what top leadership jobs entail and helping with important projects.
Davis said he’s excited to see “how an institution of this size functions on a daily basis” and the roles May and Hexter play at the university. In his preliminary meetings with them, Davis said he was struck by their evident passion for this institution and higher education in general. “I look forward to sharing in this passion at UC Davis over the next year and hope to bring back a new set of skills to help maximize our impact at WCU,” Davis shared.
One of his first observations was a ribbon-cutting for a Sacramento City College satellite campus in UC Davis West Village — a space-sharing agreement that surprised him.
“I don’t know of another institution that has a similar partnership,” he said.
Davis said he also wanted to spend time at UC Davis to see how the university is approaching its growth. While Western Carolina University has fewer students, it has added students recently, built new facilities and will partner to provide broadband Internet access for nearby rural communities.
“Of course, there are significant ways in which our institutions differ, but they are united in a trajectory of intentional growth and commitment to the greater good of our communities, regions, states and nation,” Davis said.
He’ll spend 100 days at UC Davis over the next year in periods of a couple weeks at a time.
The ACE Fellowships are designed for emerging leaders in higher education, and while one fellow spends time learning at UC Davis, another comes from the ranks of UC Davis faculty.
John Marx, a professor and chair of the English department, will spend the academic year as an ACE Fellow at Mills College in Oakland, shadowing President Elizabeth Hillman. He’s already attended a workshop for new faculty members, celebrated a program for first-generation students and watched as the president and her team worked on the annual state of the campus address. He said the fellowship has already given him new perspective of how similar events at UC Davis contribute to the university’s mission.
“Shadowing a president means learning how to think consistently from an institutional perspective,” Marx said. “It can be hard to do that from the somewhat more insular position of department chair, and practicing it this year will help me contribute more effectively at Davis, for sure.”
He said he hopes the fellowship also will teach him more about budgeting and strategic planning, as well as personal skills like communication and conflict management.
Marx will have the chance to return to Davis this week as Hillman serves as keynote speaker at the 2018 International Research Conference at UC Davis.