Groundbreaking conference on ethical leadership in higher education to be held in South Africa

Desmond Tutu is among the scheduled speakers at the April 23-25 conference, "Stellenbosch Seboka on Higher Education and Ethical Leadership: Global Perspectives in a Southern African Context," hosted by Kennesaw State and Stellenbosch universities.
 
April 14, 2008 - PRLog -- Trips to South Africa to promote ethical leadership in higher education have become something of an annual pilgrimage for Kennesaw State University President Emeritus Betty Siegel. Next week, she will head back to launch the inaugural conference on the issue hosted by Stellenbosch University, just east of Cape Town.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner, will be among the keynote speakers at the April 23-25 conference, titled the "Stellenbosch Seboka on Higher Education and Ethical Leadership: Global Perspectives in a Southern African Context." The conference is expected to attract about 60 university leaders from the U.S. and South Africa.

The "Seboka" - a Sesotho word that means a group of people meeting for a common cause - is the culmination of Siegel's missions to South Africa in 2006 and 2007 and of her work launching the Oxford Conclave on Global Ethics, a key program of KSU's Institute for Leadership, Ethics and Character.  As KSU's president emeritus, Siegel also serves as distinguished chair of leadership, ethics and character.

The conclave is a series of gatherings, convened by Siegel, at which university, business, philanthropy and government leaders discuss issues of ethical leadership and social responsibility. She launched the Oxford Conclave in September 2005, when leaders of six American universities, affiliated with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, gathered at Oxford University in England for a four-day discussion on ethical leadership.

Siegel, who led Kennesaw State through a period of phenomenal growth as president from 1981 to 2006, spent three months in South Africa last year as a visiting scholar at Stellenbosch. Her expertise spans global ethical leadership and the first-year college experience.

While consulting with Stellenbosch's leaders and those from other South African universities last year, Siegel found them "especially receptive" to the themes and concepts advanced by the Oxford conclaves - the changing nature of the college presidency, the collaborative university and social responsibility.

"South Africa is an ideal place to convene such a conference because of its unique history and the enormous changes taking place there," Siegel said. "Theses ideas really resonated with them because the theme of reconciliation is so prevalent in their experience.  Stellenbosch's rector and vice chancellor, Russel Botman, has made the university an incubator for reconciliation."

The first South African government elected in a free, multiracial vote in 1994 pursued a policy of reconciliation to foster understanding and forgiveness following the collapse of the apartheid system of racial oppression and segregation starting in the late 1990s.

Through her conclave partners, Siegel has been working toward what she calls "an ethical theory of practice," which encompasses trust, respect, optimism and intentionality.

"These ideas fit so well with the model the South Africans have adapted in the reconciliation movement," Siegel said. "This Seboka really starts us on the path of applying these ideas in shaping and developing how we will become universities of meaning, more than just a collection of courses."

The Seboka is jointly sponsored by Stellenbosch University - one of South Africa's top research universities - Kennesaw State University's Siegel Institute and Georgia State University.

For more information on the "Stellenbosch Seboka on Higher Education and Ethical Leadership: Global Perspectives in a South African Context," visit: www.sun.ac.za/ssel.

To learn more about the activities of the distinguished chair and the Siegel Institute for Leadership, Ethics and Character at Kennesaw State University, visit: www.siegelinstitute.org.

EDITORS AND PRODUCERS: A high-resolution photograph of Siegel is available online at: https://files.kennesaw.edu/staff/jcraig19/Siegel-%20Betty....

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A member of the 35-unit University System of Georgia, Kennesaw State University is a comprehensive, residential institution with a growing student population of more than 20,000 from 132 countries. The third-largest university in Georgia, Kennesaw State offers more than 60 graduate and undergraduate degrees, including new doctorates in education and business.

Website: www.kennesaw.edu
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