Whole People • Whole Organizations • Whole Communities

Center for Renewal and Wholeness in Higher Education

www.richlandcollege.edu/CRWHE

Welcome to the Center for Renewal and Wholeness in Higher Education The Center for Renewal and Wholeness in Higher Education (CRWHE) prepares individuals to facilitate profes-sional development programs in renewal and wholeness for faculty and staff in their college or university. With their institution’s support, facilitation teams engage in a preparation program that includes a week-long retreat, the op-portunity to engage in an annual, nation-wide and/or regional Gathering of facilitators, and ongoing mentoring by CRWHE staff and consultants.

CRWHE has prepared facilitators in more than 45 colleges and universities throughout the United States. Their work is informed by the teaching and writing of Parker J. Palmer and others and is enhanced by a number of concepts and processes, such as Servant Leadership, Appreciative Inquiry, Dialogue, and Relationship-Centered Care.

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Sponsored by the Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) and the League for Innovation in the Community College (League), CRWHE is hosted by Richland College of the DCCCD. More than two dozen leaders in higher educa-tion serve as National Distinguished Advocates for CRWHE. More information about our sponsoring organizations and Distinguished Advocates appears on pages 11 and 12 of this viewbook.

Individuality is only possible if it unfolds from wholeness. David Bohm

Our Vision We cultivate communities that serve, where the balance of being and doing is honored and the essence of healthy relationships to self, others, and the earth is sustained.

Our Mission Our mission is the renewal of whole people who form the heart of whole organizations that are vital to sustaining whole communities.

Our Values We believe that renewal is an organic, ongoing process that enhances whole people, whole organizations, and whole communities. Our values sustain us and give life to our work.

Authenticity We recognize that each person has an inner source of truth—an inner wisdom—that is the basis for the authentic self.Wholeness We honor the unique journey of each individual, one that engages the whole person—mind, body, and spirit—in exploring the inner life.Relationships We value relationships to self and others, acknowledging that inner work is enhanced by being in community, and that self-knowledge enriches our work in the world and our service to others.Hospitality We create a hospitable space, inviting—never expecting or demanding—participation. In this space, participants can speak their truth without fear of judgment or “fixing” from others.Mindfulness We pay attention wholeheartedly to ourselves and others—invoking silence, solitude, and deep listening.Trust We affirm that relational trust is at the heart of our work. We hold each other in trust, neither invading nor evading one another.Confidentiality We maintain a deep confidentiality that honors and affirms the integrity of each person and of the work we do.Inclusion We welcome all to this work. We are enriched by hearing voices of diverse backgrounds and differing perspectives.

Vision, Mission, and Values

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Whole PeopleWhole people live life to the fullest—balancing personal, professional, and community-service commitments—and work productively, with passion and integrity. CRWHE’s approach to renewal and wholeness in education involves creating space for personal identity and integrity to flourish. The rigors of academic life and the projections of oth-ers can cause educators to become cut off from their own emotions, beliefs, and values. By participating in retreats, dialogue groups, and other renewal activities, individuals rediscover and affirm all of who they are. Whole people—re-newed in heart, mind, and spirit—are more effective in their work and more authentic in their relationships with students and colleagues.

Renewal activities provide opportunities for contemplation and solitude, away from everyday pressures and distrac-tions. Poetry and stories from various wisdom traditions, as well as movement and the arts media, are explored in silence and in dialogue with others who listen deeply, without judgment. Retreats and retreat series are organized around themes related to renewal and wholeness. Retreats for faculty and staff contemplating retirement and retreats for students are two of the newer offerings created by CRWHE-prepared facilitators.

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. . . At the same time, embrac-ing one’s wholeness makes life more demanding—because once you do that, you must live your whole life. Parker J. Palmer

Whole OrganizationsWhole people form the heart of whole organizations. Although CRWHE’s approach focuses on personal/professional renewal and wholeness, it does so in the context of reflection and dialogue in a safe, trusting, healthy community of colleagues. In settings where colleagues listen deeply, respecting each others’ confidentiality and neither invading nor evading the other, individuals flourish and a strong esprit de corps emerges.

CRWHE’s program of renewal and wholeness is not a quick fix for institutional dysfunction. Yet the investment in whole-people development can contribute significantly to a climate for organizational transformation. Whole people grow and thrive in well-run organizations that value all of who they are. Educators who are valued and affirmed will pay it forward to their students, their colleagues, and the communities they serve.

Today more attention is being paid to the importance of whole people in vital, successful, whole organizations. Two examples are the article on “Inner Work Life” that appeared in the May 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review as well as the book, Harvard Business Review on Bringing Your Whole Self to Work, published in 2008.

Richland College, CRWHE’s host institution, was recognized in 2005 for its whole people, whole organization culture as the first community college recipient of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

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That same year Richland was also honored with the Texas Award for Performance Excellence. For ways to learn more about Richland’s approach to the role of whole people in performance excellence, refer to pages 7 and 8 of this viewbook.

. . . Our (Vision) plays itself out through organizational wholeness. This wholeness encourages whole, authentic faculty and staff to bring their whole selves to work every day. Steve Mittelstet

Whole CommunitiesWhole, sustainable communities promote the development of social equity and justice, economic sufficiency, and a healthy planet—the triple bottom line of sustainable living. It is a fact that many sustainability activities focus on the environment. CRWHE embraces a more holistic approach that emphasizes all three elements of the triple bottom line. This holistic emphasis is central to CRWHE’s mission.

Colleges and universities are asked increasingly to provide leadership in sustainable community building. Organiza-tions such as the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) assist leaders in taking positive action.

CRWHE is dedicated to the renewal of whole people who form the heart of whole organizations that are vital to sustaining whole communities. Inherent in this mission is a focus on relationships that bridge the individual’s inner life of mind and spirit to the outer world of community action and service.

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The context that restores community is one of possibility, generosity, and gifts, rather than one of problem solving, fear, and retribution. Peter Block

CRWHE Facilitation TeamsCRWHE provides facilitator team preparation for interested colleges and universities. A successful facilitation team conducts renewal and wholeness activities for their internal college community. Activities vary depending upon the interests, resources, needs, and culture of the college, as well as upon the skills and qualities of the facilitators.Teams include members who facilitate retreats and other renewal activities, those who identify retreat venues and offer added logistical support, and champions who provide budgetary and administrative assistance. In selecting their facilitation team members, college leaders identify individuals who are well-respected by their colleagues, exhibit per-sonal/professional identity and integrity, and have a demonstrated commitment to inner work, contemplative practice, and renewal. A successful team member exhibits an inclusive, hospitable spirit, interacts comfortably with diverse

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Whether you and I and a few others will renew the world some day remains to be seen. But within ourselves we must renew it each day. Hermann Hesse

groups, and works collaboratively with other team members and the CRWHE mentor.

Consult CRWHE’s web site, www.richlandcollege.edu/crwhe, for more information.

Richland CollegeFor more than a decade, Richland College’s organizational values (Integrity; Mutual Trust; Wholeness; Fairness; Considerate, Meaningful Communications; Mindfulness; Cooperation; Diversity; Responsible Risk-Taking; and Joy) have been based on the belief that whole people best learn, teach, serve, and lead. Richland relies on its faculty and staff to help one another (through professional development) and its students (through curriculum and co-curriculum) to nurture our inner, reflective selves and to connect them seamlessly to our outer, active lives of service to others and to our planet.

Whole-people development and engagement animate and activate Richland’s performance excellence model, which was inspired by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria to foster continuous improvement and break-through innovation. Richland views organizational performance excellence as vital to student success. The diagram on

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My life is my message. Gandhi

page 8 attempts to illustrate the essential interplay of various programs offered to engage Richland employees and those they serve in the work of connecting their souls to their roles in building sustainable local and world community. The diagram portrays that these Richland programs are offered discretely, simul-taneously, and/or in an overlapping fashion or on a continuous and sometimes cyclical basis as students and employees come and go, as their lives with the college evolve, and as Richland’s contextual community and global environment change.

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Linking Soul to Role in Building Sustainable Local and World Community

Richland College of the Dallas County Community College District

Team Visits to Richland College/CRWHESince Richland College became a recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2005, numerous higher education and corporate teams from across North America and from abroad have visited Richland for multi-day seminars and workshops on Richland’s performance excellence programs related to developing whole people-whole organizations-whole communities and building sustainable local and world community in the context of a whole, healthy planet.

CRWHE now oversees the scheduling and facilitation of these visits to Richland College and consultative visits to other colleges and universities. Topics include developing and maintaining a culture of high performance; strategic planning/performance measurement; assessing student learning; Baldrige in higher education; GREENRichland; intercultural competence; Institute for Peace; community/industry partnerships; and the roles various programs noted on page 8 play in Richland’s culture of performance excellence. CRWHE also works closely with individual institu-tions and consortia to customize learning/sharing opportunities at suggested locations to meet varying institutional needs.

For more information or to schedule a visit or consultation, please contact CRWHE@dcccd.edu.

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A vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a visionis just drudgery. But a vision with a plan can change the world. Old Proverb

History of CRWHECRWHE’s predecessor organization—Center for Formation in the Community College [CFCC, 2001], which later became the Center for Formation in Higher Education [CFHE, 2006]—was launched by generous funding from the Fetzer Institute, sponsored by the League for Innovation in the Community College (League), and headquartered at the District Office of the Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD). Since August 2008 CRWHE has been hosted at Richland College and is supported by the DCCCD and the League. Since its inception in 2001, CRWHE has prepared some 110 facilitators from more than 45 institutions of higher learning to help shape the whole-person/whole-organization cultures on their campuses.

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The Chambered Nautilus stands as the emblem for the CRWHE: The chambered nautilus forms its shell and moves into progressively larger compartments as it grows. As each chamber is outgrown, the nautilus walls off its last chamber and lives in the latest and largest one. And yet it remains connected to the earlier chambers by a tube which pierces the walls. The nautilus navigates by exchanging gas and liquid through the tube. Like the nautilus, a person or [orga-nization] … is constantly growing, moving into new chambers, closing the door on the past. And yet not utterly. There is always a necessary connection to what we have been, an exchange with the past we use to steer our course … [Renewal and wholeness help] us to build more stately mansions to live in, both as individuals and as institutions. The beautiful chambered nautilus is a fitting symbol of continuous growth, of a future that acknowledges and builds upon the past, of the outward manifesta-tion of inner work. 1

1 Comments of Ed Garcia, English professor, Brookhaven College (DCCCD)

. . . New forms of community would be based on this core idea of relationships bridging the inner to the outer and help-ing to provide support to each other in that journey. Rob Lehman

CRWHE Sponsoring Organizations DCCCDThe Dallas County Community College District has educated students and served area communities for more than 40 years. Each of DCCCD’S seven colleges -- Brookhaven, Cedar Valley, Eastfield, El Centro, Mountain View, North Lake, and Richland -- is individually accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award certificates and associate’s degrees. DCCCD serves more than 70,000 credit and 30,000 continuing education stu-dents each semester at its campuses and locations throughout Dallas County. DCCCD is the largest undergraduate institution in the state of Texas and, to date, has welcomed more than 1.5 million students who have pursued associ-ate’s degrees and certificates in more than 100 fields of study. Visit www.dcccd.edu for more information.

The League for InnovationThe League for Innovation in the Community College is an international organization dedicated to catalyzing the community college movement. The League hosts conferences and institutes, develops Web resources, conducts re-search, produces publications, provides services, and leads projects and initiatives with its member colleges, corporate partners, and other agencies in a continuing effort to make a positive difference for students and communities.Visit www.league.org for more information.

Richland CollegeFor more than 35 years, Richland College of the Dallas County Community College District has focused on teach-ing, learning, and community building. Richland helps students build their future through courses that can be applied to the first two years of a baccalaureate degree, one- or two-year certificates in a number of career fields, and train-ing in the latest technology for those who want to advance in their current careers. Richland’s student body, some 17,000 college credit students and 5,000 continuing education students each semester, is internationally and ethnically diverse, representing more than 130 nations and more than 80 first languages. Visit www.richlandcollege.edu for more information.

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Dr. Cynthia Bioteau, PresidentSalt Lake Community College

Dr. Jay Casbon, Professor of EducationOregon State University, Cascades Campus

Dr. Art Chickering, Author, Educator

Dr. Jackie Claunch, PresidentNorthwest Vista College, Alamo Community College District

Dr. K. Patricia Cross, Professor Emerita,University of California, Berkeley

Dr. Gerardo de los SantosPresident & CEOLeague for Innovation in the Community College

Dr. Rufus Glasper, ChancellorMaricopa County Community College District

Mr. Guy GoodingDistrict Director of Staff &Organizational Development, RetiredDallas County Community College District

Dr. Sally Hare, Professor EmeritaCoastal Carolina University

Center for Renewal & Wholeness in Higher EducationNational Distinguished Advocates

Dr. Maria Harper-Marinick, Vice-ChancellorMaricopa County Community College District

Dr. Cynthia Heelan, Retired College President and Consultant

Dr. Maria Hesse, Vice Provostfor Community College ServicesArizona State University

Dr. Wright Lassiter, ChancellorDallas County Community College District

Dr. Larry Litecky, PresidentCentury College

Dr. Joseph J. McGowan, PresidentBellarmine University

Dr. Cindy Miles, PresidentHialeah Campus, Miami Dade College

Dr. Mark Milliron, President and CEOCatalyze Learning International (CLI)

Dr. Stephen K. Mittelstet, PresidentRichland College

Dr. Terry O’BanionPresident Emeritus and Senior League FellowLeague for Innovation in the Community College

Dr. Juan Olivarez, President and CEOKalamazoo Community Foundation

Dr. Laura Rendón, Department ChairEducational Leadership and Policy StudiesIowa State University

Dr. Jackson Sasser, PresidentSanta Fe Community College

Dr. Sandy Shugart, PresidentValencia Community College

Dr. Mary Spilde, PresidentLane Community College

Mr. Bill Tucker, CFCC Founding Mentor, RetiredDallas County Community College District

Dr. Alice Villadsen, President Emerita Brookhaven College

Dr. Bill Wenrich, Chancellor EmeritusDallas County Community College District

Dr. Judy Witt, Dean of Educational Leadership & ChangeFielding Graduate University

The National Distinguished Advocates are a group of prominent college leaderswho help inform, shape, and promote the vision, mission, values, and work of CRWHE.

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ReferencesBohm, D. Attributed.

Palmer, P.J. (2000). Let your life speak: Listening for the voice of vocation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Mittelstet, S. K. (2008). “Richland College: Whole people, whole organization, whole lot of fun.” In J. Roueche, M. Richardson, P. Neal, & S. Roueche (Eds.), The creative community college: Leading change through innovation. (pp. 79-94). Washington, D.C.: Community College Press.

Block, P. (2008). Community: The structure of belonging. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Hesse, H. (1989). Demian. New York: Harper-Collins (Original work published 1919).

Gandhi, M. Attributed.

Lehman, R. (Summer 2007). “Defining common work: A conversation with Rob Lehman.” [Interview with K. Olson & T. Harris.] Our Common Work: The Newsletter of the Fetzer Institute, 4.

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Contact InformationFor more information regarding the opportunities discussed in this publication, please contact the Center for Renewal and Wholeness in Higher Education at Richland College of the Dallas County Community College District.

Phone: 972-238-6242Fax: 972-238-6166E-mail: CRWHE@dcccd.eduwww.richlandcollege.edu/CRWHE

Photography, John Pollock:four-season scenes of students, faculty, staff, visiting teams, and CRWHE facilitators on the main campus of Richland College, headquarters for the Center for Renewal and Wholeness in Higher Education

Photo on page 6 by Dr. Helen Reyes, West Texas A&M University: CRWHE Facilitator Retreat, Taos, New Mexico

Graphic Design, Suzy Hogue

Ms. Earlene Bond, Senior Executive AssistantMs. Ann Faulkner, Facilitator/Consultant Dr. Sue Jones, DirectorMs. Elaine Sullivan, Facilitator/Consultant

Whole People • Whole Organizations • Whole Communities

Center for Renewal and Wholeness in Higher Education

An Equal Opportunity Institution.