Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction -- The project -- The program -- The program curriculum -- The interviews -- ch. 1. From career to calling : the making of the vocational president -- Vocational commitment as a qualification for the presidency -- Program facilitation of vocational discernment among prospective presidents -- Variations in discernment among prospectives and spouses -- The conflation of vocation and work -- The role of friendship in vocational discernment -- Self-doubt and vocational discernment -- The balanced versus the centered life -- From discernment of vocation to the pursuit of vocation -- Creative vs. vocational leadership -- Vocational humility -- Converting the presidency from profession to vocation -- From scholarship to envisioning -- Conlcusion -- ch. 2. From administration to envisioning : shaping the vocational presidency -- Vocation for presidents vs. vocation for presidencies -- Vocational vs. "executive" leadership in higher education -- The imperial propensities of presidential vocationism -- Managing institutional resistance to vocational leadership : two cases -- From mission to the concept of saga : creating institutional self-consciousness -- From saga to vision : the vocational president as student of the college -- The dialectic of envisioning -- The forensic rhetoric of the vocational presidency -- Vocational humility and the self-confidence of envisioning -- The vicational presidency as "level 5" leadership -- Conclusion -- ch. 3. Inspiring and sustaining the vocational presidency -- The centrality of "cause" in vocational life : the first case -- The centrality of "cause" in vocational life : the second case -- Sustaining the vocational "cause" : the third case -- The centrality of "cause" in vocational life : the fourth case -- The joy of being called -- Vocational resolve, faith, and education -- Mediating realism and idealism in vocationism -- Success as sustenance for the vocational presidency -- Mentoring networks -- Conclusion -- ch. 4. The design and construction of the vocational college -- From administration to vision in the revitalization of an undergraduate college -- Vocation as a faculty development strategy in an undergraduate college -- The relationship in vocational colleges between the instrumental and envisioned regimes -- Maintaining authoirty for vocational leadership while accomplishing reform -- Vocational commitment and personal experience -- The ministry of the vocational president and the vocational college -- Work as the redemption of vocation and the liberal arts -- Taming individualism : discovering independence in community -- From social alienation to vocational commitment -- The role of the liberal arts in the transformation of colleg einto polity -- Listening to the college in constructing the vision -- Eliciting alumni guidance about envisioning -- Restoring founding orthodoxy : can it be done? -- Conclusion -- ch. 5. Conclusion : the alignment of vocation and mission in American academe -- The alignment of personal vocation and institutional mission -- The dialiectics of alignment -- The optimism of the vocational presidency -- The vocational presidency and the reconciliation of competing force -- Vocation as a therapy for the separations of modern democracy.

Print version record.

An engaging report on the Lilly Endowment-supported program on Presidential Vocation and Institutional Mission, led by the Council of Independent Colleges since 2005, showing the impact of the program upon the conception and practice of the American college and university presidency.