By Karen Feldscher
Illustrations by Jennifer Feller

They're only students. But Bill Durkin, Lauren Rouleau, and Ashley Adams are in charge.

As president of the Student Government Association (SGA), Durkin chairs Student Senate meetings, manages five SGA vice presidents, and discusses students' concerns with top-level university officials.

Rouleau is the editor of the student-run Northeastern News. She presides over editorial board meetings, serves as the News spokesperson, and guides the paper's section editors with what she hopes is a light hand.

Adams, the SGA vice president for academic affairs, heads up committees, listens to students describe their quandaries, and facilitates problem-solving discussions with academic officials.

All in a day's work for student leaders at most universities.

What's not so typical, though, is the weekly class Durkin, Rouleau, and Adams attend, the one that encourages them to step back and ruminate on the nature of leadership. How it's best done. What sinkholes to avoid. How to reach goals with minimal friction. Whether friction can ever really be avoided.

For the past six years, David Rochefort, Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Political Science, has brought small but intense groups of student leaders together for a seminar on leadership. From January through April, a dozen or so students examine the challenges of leading, using Northeastern case studies, discussions, and visits from university administrators as their lenses.

The seminar is one of several leadership courses offered at Northeastern, at a time when leadership training is gaining popularity in both academic and corporate settings.

And at a time when a lot of Americans, young people especially, are wondering where all the leaders have gone.

Homegrown lessons

The student leadership seminar was introduced in 1995, after a group of professors and administrators decided student leaders ought to be able to integrate their extracurricular experiences with an academic perspective.

Today, it draws some of the most prominent students on campus. Rochefort describes class discussions as "active," sometimes "very passionate." No shrinking violets here.

"Everyone in that room has an opinion," agrees Rouleau, a senior.

Proving her point during a class in late February, students respond without hesitation when asked to name the qualities that make a good leader.

"Communication."

"Honesty."

"Self-confidence."

"Charisma."

"Don't micromanage," says Adams. "We've learned in this class how bad that is."

When Rochefort took over the seminar, it was rather loosely structured. "There was no real course or syllabus," he says. "The routine was that the SGA executive board would be sent to the political science department once a year for a course that was supposed to be related to their work as student leaders."

He soon realized the students weren't enamored of the instruction they were getting. So he worked with them to come up with a new approach.

"This is a unique course," says Rochefort. "It really was homegrown. Students get a chance to discuss and analyze leadership, looking at things they know about but maybe haven't considered systematically."

Though participation in the seminar is no longer limited to the SGA executive board, you do have to be a leader in a campus group to enroll. Classroom analysis is sparked by guest appearances by campus officials, who talk about their leadership challenges; President Freeland himself has visited the class for the past four years.

The students also consider various scholarly ideas on the topic of leadership, and parse the successes and failures of current leaders in the news. They even take turns leading the seminar themselves.

But at the heart of the course are the case studies, written by Northeastern students about Northeastern leadership issues. This spring, for example, the class studied a failed residence hall bag-check policy aimed at reducing alcohol and drug use among students, the aftereffects of the decision to switch from quarters to semesters, and the administration's handling of an unexpected "bulge" in the freshman class four years ago.

And the class doesn't just read cases. Every year, groups of students write their own. This year's writing topics: Relations between Northeastern and neighboring communities in the wake of the 2004 Super Bowl riots, the university's response to student alcohol use, and efforts to expand alumni support.

Originally, Rochefort borrowed cases from Harvard Business School and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, two institutions known for producing stellar cases. But, over the years, he's replaced them all with Northeastern-based cases because, he says, focusing on in-house issues offers something special.

"I found the reaction of students to these cases was very strong," he says. "The topics were very immediate to them. These were situations they may have known of firsthand—or they knew some of the students who had written the cases—and they wanted to understand them better."

Talking to the flesh-and-blood officials themselves only piques more interest, Rochefort says: "When we started to have administrators come in to talk about the topics that were the focus of that week's cases, a real synergy took place."

Nature? Or nurture?

When you ask the students, they say they feed off the electricity.

Abi Green, AS'03, a political science major, says she loved the "energy in the room" when she took the course. "There were a lot of people I'd worked with on events at the university," she says. "But it was great to observe them in a non-urgent capacity. In some ways, it was a case study of what we were doing in real life."

The up-close access gives students a lot of information about how to lead.

"I was hoping the class would help us find out why good leaders are good leaders, and why bad leaders are bad," says Adams, a sophomore. "And that is definitely happening."

Everyone agrees the cases make one thing crystal clear: It's critically important for leaders to be good communicators. "Sometimes the lack of communication has shocked me," Adams says. "I thought that would be the first thing every leader would want to do."

"You've got to look to your key players, and involve them, and get their input," says Durkin, a middler. "If you don't, it blows up in your face."

Another lesson: Good leaders come in many styles.

After the class took a personality test, Rouleau says she realized that although "everyone is really different, everyone in that room, I feel, is a very successful leader. It just reinforces the fact that everyone can do it differently."

That's in line with Rochefort's ideas on leading. "You don't have to be just one type of person to be a leader," he tells the students in early March. "There are hard drivers, and there are nice guys."

Privately, he explains that he also has to work hard to debunk the myth of the born leader.

"It keeps coming up," Rochefort admits. "There are some who think it's genetic or something, that you can see on the playground who is going to be the future leader. This point of view exists not just among students, but among certain academics who write about leadership.

"I don't really believe that myself," he continues. "Your environment and your training have to count, or I would be very discouraged about doing a course like this, which aims to help students improve their leadership skills. Whatever their own basic endowments are, they can certainly benefit from reflecting on and analyzing cases that display leadership challenges."

Rochefort adds, "There are people who are born with some of the skills of leadership. For example, they may be charismatic. But they may also have a terrible lack of organization. You may be born with a gift for public speaking, but that doesn't mean you're good at managing people or organizing an office.

"Successful leadership involves multiple skills," he says. "So one of the things that's emphasized in this course is being able to assess yourself, discover things you need to improve upon, and concentrate on building skills in those areas."

Green found Rochefort's optimistic bent resonated with her. "I think it's great when you start out with some talent," she says. "But, at the same time, what the class showed me is that leadership is a skill you can hone, and learn, and get better at."

The view from the expert's chair

For their part, the university administrators who have visited the seminar appear to be reaping their own benefits, relishing the opportunity to have frank discussions with students about the complexities of their jobs.

Former student affairs vice president Karen Rigg, who agreed to be the subject of a case study several years back, says the students "asked very thoughtful questions. My sense was that they were bright, committed students who were quite focused on the university and, particularly because of their leadership roles, were wondering how they could contribute to the university."

She welcomed the back-and-forth. "It was wonderful to engage with students at that level, where you're not pontificating, but responding out of your experience and your commitment to the university," she says.

President Freeland says he's also valued his interactions with the seminar's students, whom he describes as "wanting to mix it up a little bit with somebody who's got a big position." He says he tries to offer them an accurate picture of what it's like to run an organization.

"I think students may have a tendency to equate leadership with sitting at the top of a pyramid, where all you have to do is say something and people do what you tell them," he says. "I try to move them to a place of understanding that there are many ways people exercise leadership, only one of which involves that kind of formal authority.

"For example, there's a form of leadership that occurs through intellectual persuasion, and another that requires setting a good example," says Freeland. "Any leader worth his salt is thinking about a variety of ways to influence the feelings, and thoughts, and behaviors of those within his or her organization, and doesn't think about it in a strictly hierarchical kind of way."

Freeland also emphasizes the significant downside of leading: having to deliver bad news.

"It's very difficult to exercise leadership in any complex organization without, at times, being called upon to make decisions that disappoint or even hurt someone," he says. "But if you assume the responsibility of leadership, then the ethics of that require you to decide what's best for the long-term strengths of the institution you're heading. And that may require you to disappoint or hurt individuals. If you're not prepared to do that, I think it's unethical for you to take the position. It's a big price to pay, and not everyone is ready to pay it."

He continues, "I want to make clear to students that leadership roles can be extremely demanding and full of pain for the people who occupy them. And that leadership is about service—subordinating your own personal interests for the greater good."

Of course, administrators are prepared to tout the joys of leadership, too. During a class in March, College of Arts and Sciences dean James Stellar exuded enthusiasm as he talked about Northeastern's drive to join the ranks of the nation's top-hundred colleges and universities, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.

"If you can pull people together, get them to work on a common goal that makes sense, get them to feel empowered, they will do things that exceed your imagination," he said.

But Stellar confessed all roads have their twists and turns. "There are a lot of things that happen in leadership that common sense would fix," he said. "I can tell you that because I've made an enormous number of mistakes. I've learned from doing the wrong thing. And I still have a lot of learning to do."

Rochefort asked Stellar to describe the best way to become a leader.

"Fall in love with something," Stellar said. "Build up your credentials. Become excellent. Be a problem-solver. Get people to work together. Pay attention to the system you're in. Find a mentor."

And, he added, don't buy into the "who do you think you are" reaction you sometimes get when you have your eye on a leadership role.

"A lot of people say negative things about leadership," he told the class. "We worry that wanting to become a leader is egotistical. But there's nothing wrong with saying, ïI'm interested.' Just go for it. The fact is, the world needs a lot of leadership."

Especially now, it seems. When the students are asked during another class which leaders they admire, they seem stuck. Someone mentions Franklin Roosevelt. Another, John F. Kennedy. Oprah, someone else chimes in, as the rest of the room chuckles.

Junior Jillian Sheppard, a member of the Model United Nations Association, sums up the general feeling. "We have no one to look to," she says.

Pressed later on whether there's a leader she respects, junior Nikki Joffe praises Rudy Giuliani for helping New Yorkers regain their footing in the wake of 9/11.

Though he believes there's "a lack of admirable leaders in our world today," Bill Durkin says he admires New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. "He is humble, always stays focused on the task at hand, fosters a team atmosphere, and is a doer, not a talker," he says.

Ashley Adams says she, too, is generally dismayed with today's leaders, citing their "lack of emphasis on honesty, integrity, and improving life for the members of the world." She says she notices "a lot of focus on money and wealth."

She's hopeful about the future, however. "I feel this generation has the capability to surge ahead, and make the most out of the world."

We're all leaders now

Despite the lack of charismatic role models, Rochefort and his colleagues believe students can still be taught to act like leaders. And just in time. Increasingly, educators and executives say, people have to act like leaders on the job, regardless of whether they actually hold a leadership title.

Says Joseph Raelin, the Asa S. Knowles Chair of Practice-Oriented Education and director of Northeastern's Center for Work and Learning, "Things are getting very complicated in organizational life. Job descriptions are volatile. People move around a lot. Some people think it means we need a leader, a hero to save us. I don't see that. I see an interest in having the leadership more distributed in organizations."

"People are increasingly operating in multidisciplinary team environments," says Gerald Herman, assistant history professor and director of interdisciplinary studies at the College of Arts and Sciences. "Learning how to be a leader in a group environment, in which you can't order but can influence change, is becoming increasingly important."

Raelin and Herman have been instrumental in designing leadership programs at Northeastern. So has Christopher Hopey, vice president for adult and continuing education, who agrees with his colleagues' take on leadership in the twenty-first century. "Many organizations have become flat," he says. "People are becoming directors of groups or project managers. More and more, people have to have leadership skills in everything they do."

In January, a Boston Herald story focused on the growing number of leadership and management programs in Boston, which are attracting not just business executives, but physicians, high school teachers, nonprofit workers, and musicians. Hopey sees the same trend; he calls a degree in leadership "the new arts and sciences degree" for the modern organization.

To capitalize on all the interest, Northeastern's School of Professional and Continuing Studies (SPCS) has launched two new leadership programs. A bachelor's in leadership studies was introduced last September, drawing a hundred students. And a master's in leadership that began in January drew ninety students. Both numbers were higher than expected, Hopey says.

SPCS also offers two other leadership programs: an eighteen-month intensive bachelor's program for mid-career executives with an associate's degree, and a program offering would-be community leaders from the Roxbury area a chance to learn from more experienced leaders.

In spring 2003, the College of Arts and Sciences launched a leadership studies minor, with core courses drawn from communication studies, journalism, interdisciplinary studies, and philosophy (Rochefort's seminar is one of the capstone courses). The minor offers tracks in public policy, military leadership, and women and leadership.

And the Division of Student Affairs runs its own series of leadership programs for students. Seminars cater to both new and experienced leaders; conferences held several times a year discuss such topics as women's leadership, leadership and spirituality, and the entrepreneurial leader.

Not surprisingly, all these programs emphasize hands-on experiences.

"We're making use of Northeastern's interest in practice-oriented education," says Raelin. "We're saying leadership isn't something you pick up only from reading a book or taking a class. You learn about it, reflect on it, and apply it in practice."

Walking in someone else's shoes

On a chilly late-February afternoon, in a Ryder Hall classroom with a wall of windows that frame the Egan Research Center and the Ruggles T station, Rochefort's seminar comes to order.

The students' energy plays out in hyper body language: restless hands clicking pens, fingernails tapping, legs jiggling. When Rochefort reminds them of the upcoming deadline for the case studies they're writing, their faces register a mixture of concern, shock, and amusement.

They successfully negotiate an extension for when their first drafts are due.

After that, they get down to the business of the day: examining leadership challenges faced by campus fraternities and sororities.

John Guilfoil, a middler who is the SGA's vice president for administration and public relations, as well as the public relations director for the Kappa Sigma fraternity, leads the discussion. He gives the class some background on Greek organizations' struggle for visibility at Northeastern.

The discussion meanders a bit. Students talk about the stereotypes that plague fraternities and sororities: Animal HouseÆtype guys, Coach bagÆbuying girls. How the Greeks face an uphill battle at an urban school like Northeastern, with so many activities from which to choose. How they're probably more popular at rural schools, where they're the main game around.

Gently, Rochefort steers the conversation in another direction, asking what the organizations—described in the case study under discussion as lacking system-wide coordination—could do to improve their campus standing.

"The Greek organizations want to be taken more seriously," he says. "How do they get to the next level? And, in general, how do organizations get treated more seriously?"

Dialogue and more dialogue is important, Rochefort knows, because leadership isn't an exact science. There are never any one-size-fits-all answers.

By the time students have completed the seminar, Rochefort wants them to have acquired a nuanced, sophisticated way of viewing challenges, which helps them understand why particular initiatives succeed or fail. He also wants them to recognize that leaders themselves are a work in progress.

Some students, Rochefort says, write case studies that strongly reflect their own views; they can't see things from an administrator's standpoint. That's when "it's very helpful for them to meet with the administrator involved," he says, "and realize what it was like to be facing the decision in real time."

When the class studied former residential life director M. L. Langlie's unsuccessful residence hall bag-check policy, which was designed to reduce drinking and drug-taking in the dorms, the students initially focused on Langlie's missteps. But Rochefort reminded them that her attempt took courage.

"Even though what she came up with wasn't going to be effective, because there was too much opposition, she was recognizing there was a problem," he says. "And, with the students, she was very open and reflective about it, very willing to look back and say, ïYeah, that was a mistake.'"

He adds, "She learned a lot. And so did we."

Karen Feldscher is a senior writer.