This book addresses the critical and difficult issues facing higher education in the 1990s including the need to improve the quality of teaching and learning, raise academic standards, protect freedom of expression, and enhance both the community of the whole and the individual and small groups that make up that community. The book also examines undergraduates' experience of community in both the academic and nonacademic realms while structuring the broad topic around three foci: (1) student diversity, particularly racial and ethnic diversity and women students; (2) individual and small-group rights and responsibilities in relation to institutional authority; and (3) student-faculty relations and the learning community. The book offers an understanding of community as a complex concept, one that incorporates the values of a democratic society and encourages learning and participation by all citizens of the community. Specific topics discussed include race and ethnicity, the climate for women, harassment and free speech, alcohol, crime, fraternity and sorority, or "Greek" life, and interaction among faculty and students. The book concludes with 20 recommendations to support the implementation of pluralistic learning communities on U.S. campuses. Contains an index and a bibliography of over 300 listings. (GLR)