Practicing Servant-Leadership on campus

The Chronicle's Wired Campus Blog posted this article about a new program at UNC-Chapel Hill. The university has started providing laptops, free of charge, to its employees to use at home for a period of six months. As I read more about it here some very interesting points came to light: The laptops are available to any staff member with a salary of less than $35,000/year who are enrolled in some sort of coursework; furthermore, the program started with 10 computers, but has since grown to 30 with wireless capabilities, and another 15 without; and they are all frequently checked out.

Here is a great example of a university asking the right kinds of questions: What would help encourage our staff to continue their education?; What can we do to help further that education?; and How do we help those who are most in need financially? From the university's viewpoint this is a great way to go about it without having a large impact on the university budget, which is obviously a concern on many college campuses if you read yesterday's post.

Oh, and the best part of this story? The part that drives home how much this all rings true with servant-leadership? The first ten were purchased by the University Chancellor himself, with bonus money he had earned as part of his job. (OK, I have an issue with paying the university administration bonuses, but won't let that get in the way here of an absolutely great story). Being true to the mission of the university....it doesn't get much better than this.