Bradley Award Recipient 2011
Gregory S. Prince, Jr.
President Emeritus, Hampshire College, MA
The Richard J. Bradley Award, named for the longtime Executive Director of the Association, is presented annually to an active New England educator who has made significant contributions to the work and purpose of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and whose exemplary work maintains and advocates high standards of excellence in education.
Greg Prince has been a longstanding participant in and contributor to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Most recently, he served the Association as Chair of the NEASC 125th Anniversary Committee which was formed in 2008 to plan, develop, and undertake the activities and events recognizing NEASC's formation. In addition, he was a Trustee Member-at-Large (CIHE), NEASC Board of Trustees, from 2000 to 2003. He has also participated on visiting committees for the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, both as a committee member and a chairperson.
Beginning in 2008, Greg Prince guided the Anniversary Committee celebrating NEASC's past 125 years in ‘expected ways’ such as selection of speakers and initiating research to compose a history of the past 25 years. His insight and his willingness to “think outside the box” were instrumental in laying the groundwork for raising an awareness of the influence of the Association on its membership and its broader educational constituency. For the launch of the 125th Anniversary year, the Committee, under Greg Prince’s leadership, had established an over-arching theme and concept that recognized 125 years of NEASC's significant impact on the region, the nation and beyond: NEASC@125 Demanding Excellence, Honoring Difference. The theme identified NEASC’s enduring purpose, while, at the same time, highlighting NEASC’s singularity in serving a broad and diverse constituency—unique in the world-wide education community.
Insistent on the inclusion of students in the celebration of the Association’s anniversary, Prince and the Committee expanded the framework and launched the “Listening to Students” Initiative involving consideration by over 100 member institutions and resulting in the formation of a series of forums, discussions, and panels. The NEASC membership, both local and international, participated through student-led activities of which a number were documented either in film/media, class, campus and Skype discussions at all educational levels. Students and their institutions celebrated NEASC’s origins, current and projected impact on education.
Greg Prince, in the midst of the planning and implementation of the celebration, also assumed the responsibility for authoring the companion piece to the centennial history, NEASC@125. The dual nature of what has been, together with what may be envisioned for the Assocation’s next 25, is at the heart of the work. This publication chronicles more than the NEASC timeline; it also interprets and presents the NEASC story from 1985 to 2010 as Prince and the Committee saw it both as participant and witness.
Jake Ludes, Executive Director and CEO at the time, noted that when NEASC began to think about the 125th experience early in the new millennium, Greg stood out as an experienced hand who had the capacity to see things others failed to grasp and, at the same time, point accurately to the future. Ludes predicted that, “NEASC and others who are interested in the ways in which NEASC has played a unique role in the history of education, will be well served to learn the lessons that Prince presents.
Prince has a lengthy listing of numerous leadership roles in civic and community activities, in addition to a range of ‘established’ roles as academic administrator and faculty. Most recently, from 1989 to 2005, he served as President of Hampshire College. His holding that position was preceded by his work at Dartmouth College as associate dean of the faculty for curriculum planning and resource development. He also led two programs in Hong Kong (1961-1963), together with a broad and varied range of service focused on diversity, student leadership, conflict resolution, and racial and ethnic justice. His 2008 book, Teach Them to Challenge Authority: Educating for Healthy Societies, chronicles only in part the many ways in which Prince has exemplified NEASC’s mission and objectives (Demanding Excellence, Honoring Difference) through providiing example and assistance to others worldwide to improve the learning culture of the schools in which they work.
He also serves as Senior Consultant to the national organization, Pathways to College, on the boards of European Humanities University, the American University in Bulgaria and special counsel to the American Bar Association’s Council on Racial & Ethnic Justice.
Prince has provided a new and powerful lens to reflect on education now and in the future for educators, policy leaders or the generation likely to attend NEASC’s 150th anniversary.