Feasibility of an Undergraduate Leadership Studies Program at Florida Atlantic University

Abstract

This paper explores the feasibility for an undergraduate leadership studies pro-gram to be established at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). Insight was obtained through focus groups and phone interviews to help explore the level of interest there is for a leadership studies program at FAU, along with helping gauge what worked best at other institutions that have established leadership studies programs on their campuses. We gained information by asking students what they believe are three skills and attributes of an effective leader and were able to discover that communication, motivation and hon-esty were the most prevalent. When we asked students what had benefitted them the most in the Introduction to Leadership course (LDR 2010) and what benefits could come from a leadership studies program, they stated that the top benefits were real world appli-cation and career goals. Finally, when asking about the level of interest in having a pro-gram on campus, we found there was an overall interest from the students. We also spoke with individuals who serve as coordinators for leadership programs at four institu-tions similar to FAU’s structure in the sense that it is a public, state funded university. By speaking to these individuals, we were able to gauge what is working for their leader-ship programs and how they structured the programs in terms of credits and where the program is housed. With the data we collected, we saw there is in fact a desire for estab-lishing a leadership studies program at FAU, with an emphasis on making it interdiscipli-nary.