Gonzaga University’s Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies has received a $180,000 grant from the U.S. State Department to work with the faculty of the doctoral program in public management and administration at the University of Pretoria. The University of Pretoria program is considered the premier graduate program in leadership and public administration in Africa. The universities will work together to strengthen the ethics focus of the University of Pretoria program and the global focus of Gonzaga’s doctoral program.

Faculty from both programs will jointly develop and test curricula that will introduce South African students to ethics and the implications of ethics for leadership and will provide the Gonzaga students with an expanded understanding of the global and international aspects of leadership. The revised teaching materials will be available online as a resource for other universities.

Gonzaga University President Rev. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., said the grant will build upon Gonzaga’s increasing international presence. “This is a great opportunity to increase our international programs and international exposure,” Spitzer said. “Gonzaga is currently working not only with South Africa, but with the University of Javieriana in Colombia , Sophia and Seikei universities in Japan, Sogang University in Korea, and in other countries. I look forward to a long term relationship with the University of Pretoria.”

The State Department grant builds upon a partnership initiated last year when Gonzaga Professor James Beebe of the Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies received a grant from the Global Technology Corps. Beebe spent 12 days helping professors from the University of Pretoria update their curriculum on the implications of computer technology for leadership. After Professor Petrus A. Brynard visited Gonzaga in September, he and Professor Beebe collaborated on a Leadership and Technology course last spring. (The syllabus for this course is online at http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/doctoral/dp/ls707/s01.html.)

“The University of Pretoria was very impressed with the focus on values and the integration of ethics into almost every course of our doctoral program,” said Beebe. “Since the end of apartheid, South Africa has made amazing progress in the transfer of leadership to the majority Black population. The University of Pretoria needs our experience in integrating ethics into their courses and we need their experience in dealing with cross-cultural and global issues. This grant should produce a long-term partnership based on mutual self-interest with immediate benefits for students in both programs.”

Associate Professor Shann Ferch, chair of the GU doctoral program, noted that this activity “is consistent with the Jesuit tradition of ethics, the promotion of social justice, and reconciliation in the human community. The grant clearly reflects Gonzaga’s mission by reaffirming the dignity of the human person and the pursuit of excellence and truth.”

The grant will fund - over the next three years - travel and living expenses for five to 14 weeks for six professors and a graduate student from each university. Gonzaga participants will include the doctoral program faculty and Michael Stebbins, director of the Gonzaga Institute of Ethics. The grant also funds short visits by GU President Rev. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., to South Africa, and Sibusiso Vil-Knomo, dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of Pretoria, to Spokane. They will deliver guest lectures to graduate classes and the public.

These activities are assisted financially by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. State Department under the authority of the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961, as amended, through the College and University Affiliations Program. According to the U.S. State Department, the College and University Affiliations Program “fosters linkages in the humanities and social sciences between U.S. and foreign academic institutions.” Grants are given to projects that benefit all partner institutions, have a multiplier effect, and positive long-term impact. There is considerable competition for these grants and in recent years only about 15 grants have been awarded each year from more than 300 applications.

Additional information about the grant is available at http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/doctoral/pretoria or from GU Professor James Beebe, project director, at (509) 323-3484