About Greenleaf
University
We exist to serve you!
This home page outlines the main
features of the University. Your further queries will be cheerfully
and courteously dealt with by:
Dr. Francis P. DeCaro, Chairman from July 2, 2009
Chairman of the Board
Chief Financial Officer
Professor and Senior Mentor
He invites you to contact him at 300B High Street, Jefferson City, MO 65101, USA: Phone 1-484-347-0422
About The University
Faculty/Staff, University
Board, Recent Graduates
About Our
Chairman
A Message
from the President
WHAT KIND OF UNIVERSITY?
We are a new kind of Information
Age University. We exist solely to deliver high quality
advanced degrees to Scholar Practitioners all over the world,
who are unable to leave their current vocations to sit in a
classroom, or even unable to leave their country to take
residency in a different land. Most Universities are based
on what is essentially an Industrial Age model often satirized
as "batch-processing" of identical-age students in
fixed timetables at the convenience of the faculty and administrators.
Historically, they are hierarchical and bureaucratic.
We are a distance-learning University,
not to be confused with an on-line university. While "on-line"
courses have their merit, they are conceptually an electronic
and automated version of the traditional classroom, with everyone
in lock-step.
We go back to the older pre-Industrial
model found in ancient China, India, ancient Islam and as
in the European older Universities like Oxford and Cambridge: the
one-on-one"tutorial"
model (we call them Mentors, but the principle is the
same).
We are creating the TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY UNIVERSITY.
We make the University serve YOUR needs. You work at
YOUR pace. While we have, as always, a defined curriculum,
the courses are individuated to your needs and special
circumstances. We also don't make you re-learn what
you have already learned. As such, we prefer the term
LEARNER to "student" and because you are all mid-career
professionals and specialists, not neophytes, we respect
that and treat you as COLLEAGUES and indeed fellow learners,
for surely you will also teach us something. In essence
much of our work is 'contract-learning": we work together
(you and your mentor) to agree on the method by which you
will demonstrate the BREADTH of knowledge, the DEPTH of
understanding and the APPLICATION of those theories and
concepts in your professional life, now and in the future. You
have some special aspect on which you want to do research
to write your Master's thesis or your Doctoral dissertation. We
have the academic expertise to guide you to that goal in
academe with the highest academic standards. Most
of us are familiar with both the traditional and the distance
learning models, so we understand where you are coming from
and where you are going. Our task is
to help you achieve those goals! those aims are the
result of the Mission Statement adopted by our Board.
Mission
Statement
Greenleaf University is a distance-learning
institution of higher education with a special public service
cause of furthering the academic education of mid-career professionals
in leadership and administration with an emphasis on servant-leadership
and alternative futures. The University believes that an earned
degree includes a profound understanding of classical and
contemporary leadership and administrative theories and the
application of these theories to a work environment.
Leaders must be forward looking,
and know how to manage change, and integrate theory, technology
and practice. Greenleaf University provides formal education
in leadership and administration theories and requires learners
to practice these tenets in their work environment. Greenleaf
University believes that all qualified mid-career professionals,
regardless of their geographic location, have an equal right
to participate in institutions of higher education. Greenleaf
University offers this opportunity within an environment that
stimulates personal, professional, and leadership growth.
Our Basis
and Structure
We are a NOT-FOR-PROFIT entity. That means, very
simply, that every dollar received is used for academic
purposes: no funds are leaving the University to pay owners
or shareholders or corporate entities. That means we can
charge more reasonable fees because in addition, we are debt
free.
As a distance learning University
we do not need a large campus, nor do we have a massive hierarchy
or a large bureaucracy. Greenleaf University, after
the reorganization in 2001-2002 has adopted a very simple
decentralized network model. The Board and Administration
are inter-locked as needed and the Administration operates
on the principle of
"distance management" with a decentralized, non-bureaucratic
system. That means that your concerns will be dealt
with promptly and efficiently. This is why you will
see different addresses for key Administrators and for Faculty. We
are linked electronically (email, phone, and fax) and are
in daily communication.
History
Greenleaf University was founded
in 1989 as the Institute for Professional Studies. One of
the core values of IPS has always been servant-leadership.
In 1996, in order to more closely align the name of the school
with its core values, IPS was joined to Greenleaf University,
and the
"professional studies" were more narrowly defined
as relating to management leadership and administration. The
entire title is "Greenleaf University, Institute for
Professional Studies, an American Graduate School." For
the sake of convenience, this generally is shortened to "Greenleaf
University." Greenleaf University offers a Doctor of
Philosophy in Management Leadership and Administration and
two Master degrees, one in Management Leadership and Administration,
the other in Futures Studies, and appropriate Bachelor's
degrees.
Purposes
The purposes of Greenleaf University
are as follows:
ARE WE ACCREDITED?
Greenleaf University is registered on May 4, 1989, as a Not-For-Profit Corporation, by the Missouri Secretary of State, Missouri, USA. Registration Number N 00040143; and with the USA Internal Revenue Service as a Not-for-Profit, 501 © 3, Educational Institution, Registration Number 43-1526425. Greenleaf University, do not hold Accreditation from the Missouri Department of Higher Education (MDHE), at this time. Greenleaf University will be pursing accreditation with the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
OUR MOTTO
OUR
MOTTO IS: First Things First
