November 1997
In Depth With NERCHE's Zelda Gamson
Few organizations are one-of-a-kind in our diversified nation. The New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE) is one of them.
Many in higher education circles find it difficult to discuss this unique organization, which works with regional and national educators, without talking about their colleague, Zelda "Zee" Gamson, NERCHE's founder and director.
"She's a wonderful facilitator," said Hannah Goldberg, provost and academic vice president of Wheaton College. "One of her strengths is bringing people together. She has a wonderful vision of what people can accomplish," she said.
"She's really good at discovering good sources of funding and maintaining a program," said Eugene Rice, scholar in residence and director of the Forum On Faculty Roles and Rewards at the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE).
These skills helped Gamson build NERCHE into a unique organization whose mission is to improve colleges and universities as workplaces, communities and organizations. NERCHE addresses this issue through think tanks, research, consulting and professional development. It also publishes materials on education.
Since NERCHE's founding in 1988 in the wake of severe state budget cuts, the former professor at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has helped secure funds from charitable organizations including the Knight, Kellogg and Carnegie foundations.
But Gamson would rather focus on issues, not herself. "That's something that you don't often find in our generation of older senior faculty," Rice said. "She is especially what I think of as professionally responsible."
At the heart of NERCHE are its think tanks, described by Gamson as "community-building devices." Think tanks provide campus leaders with a forum for exchanging information and resources and translating theory into practice. Five think tanks currently address chief student affairs officers, chief academic officers, associate academic deans, and department chairs. Another on public service is in the works. Members represent 85 institutions.
"We've worked with probably two-thirds of the colleges in the Northeast, either through our think tanks or our research projects," Gamson said.
Think tanks are "extraordinarily useful," Baer said. "I get many good ideas, and I hope I'm able to share some good ideas as well."
"I'm one of the early members of the academic affairs think tank," Goldberg said. "One of the beauties of the group is that it brings together people from unlike universities," she said. "It gives you an external lens through which to view issues."
NERCHE also offers consultations and workshops, both of which emphasize collaboration and team&endash;building and concentrate on three areas of expertise: organizational change, community building and faculty work.
NERCHE is a valuable resource to UMass Boston &emdash; promoting the mission, connecting with other campuses and delivering a national perspective. "There are a number of projects that UMass Boston has been a part of because of NERCHE," Gamson said.
Baer says NERCHE enhances UMass Boston's position in higher education circles. "I think that by bringing academic and student affairs leaders to the University of Massachusetts Boston campus for NERCHE, Zee has gained a lot of visibility for the university," Baer said.
"We really have a national presence," Gamson said. Staffers work closely with national organizations. They are widely published and frequently quoted by the media. "There is no equivalent to NERCHE anywhere in the country," said Deborah Hirsch, associate director of NERCHE. Baer agrees. "I think Zee has really cornered the market," he said.
An executive editor of Change, Gamson has written several books. Most recently, she, along with Sandra L. Kanter, NERCHE research associate, and Howard B. London of Bridgewater State College, wrote "Revitalizing General Education in a Time of Scarcity: A Navigational Chart for Administrators and Faculty."