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CHOSEN TO LEAD: Generations of Rhodes Scholars in American Meritocracy.
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Youn and Arnold
ASHE 2006
Scholars and earning the highest percentage of First Class degrees at Oxford, the Vietnam era Scholars were also more likely than any other group to leave Oxford without a degree and to work in adulthood as non-professionals.
Table 2
Level of Public Leadership by Cohort
Leadership Level
Post-WW II(n=143)
Cold War(n=161)
VietnamEra(n=180)
1980s
(n=184)
1990s
(n=206)
TOTAL
(N=874)
Highest
37.1%
35.4%
32.2%
16.8%
5.3%
24%
Middle
35%
39.8%
32.2%
40.2%
19.9%
32.8%
Lowest
23.8%
21.1%
32.2%
42.4%
72.3%
40.4%
Missing
4.2%
3.7%
3.3%
.5%
2.4%
2.7%
Interview data provided some insight into the influence of historical era on
leadership. Across all cohorts, study participants spoke of the obligation to service that comes with the privilege of a Rhodes Scholarship.
Once you have the appellation ‘Rhodes Scholar,’ there are expectations that you are going to do socially worthwhile things with your life… The Rhodes creates expectations - it's a little bit self-fulfilling that so many people go on to do things, in the ‘fight the world's fight,’ socially relevant realm, because you can't always identify people their senior year in college who are going that direction. But if, in your senior year in college you've been told that's what's expected of you, that is a further impetus to go in that direction, and I think you realize what a wonderful opportunity you've been given, how lucky you are, and how much has been invested in you, that it creates a sense of obligation to do something with it and to pay it back. (Vietnam era Rhodes Scholar )
Rhodes Scholars from the 1940s and 1950s articulated a consensus view that leaders must serve larger national purposes. A typical response came from a Cold War scholar who characterized Cecil Rhodes’s Will as “a guiding mandate for Rhodes Scholars to be involved in public service.” Generally members of the first two cohorts said that recipients of the scholarship are “obliged to be public minded and show public responsibility.” Vietnam era Rhodes, on the other hand, spoke of the turbulence of their time and the ambiguity of public service in light of the moral dilemmas of the war and racism. Many members of this cohort took up larger causes, often following the path of legal study. Others chose non-traditional routes to service that lay outside formal organizational leadership. A few dropped out of achievement settings.
Our interviews with Scholars from the Affirmative Action Era and the
Reagan/Bush era showed yet another shift in understanding leadership. Although many
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| | Authors: Youn, Ted. and Arnold, Karen. |
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Youn and Arnold
ASHE 2006
Scholars and earning the highest percentage of First Class degrees at Oxford, the Vietnam
era Scholars were also more likely than any other group to leave Oxford without a degree
and to work in adulthood as non-professionals.
Table 2
Level of Public Leadership by Cohort
Leadership
Level
Post-
WW II
(n=143)
Cold
War
(n=161)
Vietnam
Era
(n=180)
1980s
(n=184)
1990s
(n=206)
TOTAL
(N=874)
Highest
37.1%
35.4%
32.2%
16.8%
5.3%
24%
Middle
35%
39.8%
32.2%
40.2%
19.9%
32.8%
Lowest
23.8%
21.1%
32.2%
42.4%
72.3%
40.4%
Missing
4.2%
3.7%
3.3%
.5%
2.4%
2.7%
Interview data provided some insight into the influence of historical era on
leadership. Across all cohorts, study participants spoke of the obligation to service that
comes with the privilege of a Rhodes Scholarship.
Once you have the appellation ‘Rhodes Scholar,’ there are expectations that you
are going to do socially worthwhile things with your life… The Rhodes creates
expectations - it's a little bit self-fulfilling that so many people go on to do things,
in the ‘fight the world's fight,’ socially relevant realm, because you can't always
identify people their senior year in college who are going that direction. But if, in
your senior year in college you've been told that's what's expected of you, that is a
further impetus to go in that direction, and I think you realize what a wonderful
opportunity you've been given, how lucky you are, and how much has been
invested in you, that it creates a sense of obligation to do something with it and to
pay it back. (Vietnam era Rhodes Scholar )
Rhodes Scholars from the 1940s and 1950s articulated a consensus view that leaders must
serve larger national purposes. A typical response came from a Cold War scholar who
characterized Cecil Rhodes’s Will as “a guiding mandate for Rhodes Scholars to be
involved in public service.” Generally members of the first two cohorts said that recipients
of the scholarship are “obliged to be public minded and show public responsibility.”
Vietnam era Rhodes, on the other hand, spoke of the turbulence of their time and the
ambiguity of public service in light of the moral dilemmas of the war and racism. Many
members of this cohort took up larger causes, often following the path of legal study. Others
chose non-traditional routes to service that lay outside formal organizational leadership. A
few dropped out of achievement settings.
Our interviews with Scholars from the Affirmative Action Era and the
Reagan/Bush era showed yet another shift in understanding leadership. Although many
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