ACE fellowship: Graduate school without the homework

When Margaret Doell was deciding where she would spend an academic year as an American Council on Higher Education fellow, she recalled her first visit to UCCS decades earlier.

A professor at Adams State College, Alamosa, Doell brought a group of students to a Gallery of Contemporary Art exhibit in 1996. That introduction, and, later, a letter of support for Doell’s application for the U.S. work papers from then-GOCA director Jerry Riggs, left a lasting impression.

“A lot has certainly changed at UCCS since then – I think we pulled a van right up to the gallery door to drop the students off,” Doell recounted recently. “But I remember the friendliness and kindness extended to me and to my students when we visited campus. As I thought where I was going to go in the program, that memory returned.”

As one of only 57 people selected for the prestigious ACE program, Doell was encouraged to consider many factors when selecting a campus where she would spend nine months learning about university administration. Among those factors included proximity to her Alamosa home, was larger than Adams State, was led by a woman, and had a history of participating in the ACE program.

On all counts, UCCS scored.

Since August, Doell has worked closely with Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak and other campus leaders to learn about university administration. She has also national attended meetings sponsored by ACE. In late May, she will complete the fellowship and return to Adams State where she will once again chair the Adams State Department of Art and take on a part-time job as assistant vice president for academic affairs. She hopes to increase that role over time as the college works to develop existing faculty and staff members to become campus leaders.

“Running an art department was good preparation for administration,” Doell said recently. “There is a very structured process to creating some kinds of art. The skill sets for art and administration are not all that different.”

A printmaker and photographer, Doell sees both administration and art as step-by-step processes that focus on visioning, planning, and execution. She has concluded that in administration the keys to doing this successfully are: planning, relationship building and communication.

“I’ve been amazed at the degree of communication that goes on across this campus and the multiple opportunities that there are to find out what’s happening,” Doell said. “That’s something I hope to model. It’s important to know the constituents on any given issue and to build relationships.”

All ACE fellows are required to complete a specific project. At UCCS, Doell studied the university’s shared governance model. She hopes to implement some of her observations at Adams State.

“This whole year has been like graduate school without the home work,” Doell said. “I have had the chance to observe, to study and to learn. It’s been incredible.”

While Doell considers herself a Coloradan, her roots are in Canada. She grew up in Altona, Manitoba, earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Manitoba and was a resident artist at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta before earning a Master’s of Fine Arts from Concordia University, Montreal. She joined the Adams State faculty in 1996 and, in 2012, became a U.S. citizen.

“I’ve had a very positive experience here,” Doell said. “I’ll be finished around Memorial Day and already know that I’m going to be sad to leave.”

To see Doell’s artwork, visit http://www.margaretdoell.com