Adrianna Kezar recently sat down with Chancellor Tim White of the California State University system to discuss, among many other things, the newly released California State Graduation Initiative and what it will take to enact it. The key commitments of the initiative are: (1) hire more tenure-track faculty; (2) develop engaged advising; (3) solve…

Several years ago, Elon University set out to better understand experiential learning on campus. At the time, there was a pragmatic need to collect data that would inform revisions to the core curriculum, including an experiential-learning requirement (ELR) that had been in place since 1994. The question was whether it made sense to raise the…

In a September 2013 interview, Thomas Ehrlich and Ernestine Fu--whose passion for public service is manifested in differing ways and from two dramatically different generational standpoints--discussed insights from their co-authored book, "Civic Work, Civic Lessons: Two Generations Reflect on Public Service (2013)." Septuagenarian Tom…

Learning Analytics (LA) has been identified as one of the top technology trends in higher education today (Johnson et al., 2013). LA is based on the idea that datasets generated through normal administrative, teaching, or learning activities--such as registrar data or interactions with learning management systems--can be analyzed to enhance…

It has been almost ten years since the American Council on Education (ACE) began to raise awareness of the importance of workplace flexibility in faculty careers and to encourage colleges and universities to support faculty in better integrating their professional and personal lives. With the generous support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, ACE…

Educating college students to navigate the complexities of contemporary adult life is an increasingly complex task. Many entering collegians come from highly structured and protective environments and are socialized to depend on authorities for guidance. In a few short years, the college experience must help them learn to take personal…

This article presents an interview with Robert Mendenhall, president of Western Governors University, who is the 2012 recipient of the Virginia B. Smith (VBS) Innovative Leadership Award. The annual award recognizes his leadership in redesigning higher education delivery for adult students. In the interview, Robert Mendenhall talks about his work…

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education and the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning are pleased to announce the winner of the 2010 Virginia B. Smith Innovative Leadership Award, Julie M. Phelps. Phelps is a professor of mathematics at Valencia Community College who teaches and has studied and refined three types of…

To understand what life on the tenure track is like, the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) conducts an annual survey of tenure-track faculty. Through surveys and in focus groups and interviews, hundreds of tenure-track faculty members tell what affects their workplace satisfaction and, ultimately, their success. The…

Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, has served as president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), since 1992. He is coauthor of "Beating the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Males" (1998) and "Overcoming the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Young Women" (2001). Under Hrabowski's leadership, the…

Motivated in large part by accreditation pressures, campuses are turning to new providers for assistance with a wide range of assessment-related tasks and processes. Some offer help in formulating student learning outcomes--and in bringing (as one says) "the science of learning" to "the art of teaching." Several are in the rubric-development…

The ADVANCE Institutional Transformation projects are remarkably diverse in their theories of action and choice of strategies. However, faculty development plays a role in many, and it was the central change strategy chosen by Leadership Education for Advancement and Promotion (LEAP), the 2002-2008 ADVANCE project at the University of Colorado at…

This article starts by presenting five scenarios, each represents a significant type of grassroots change that is occurring at colleges and universities across the country. Those who are instigating these changes have little formal authority. The authors recently conducted a study to document and better understand these kinds of changes and the…

This article presents an interview with two people who had responsibility for leading the development of the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA)--a joint project of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), supported by the Lumina…

This article presents an interview with Ralph Wolff, the president and executive director of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges since 1996 and the 2008 recipient of the Virginia B. Smith (VBS) Innovative Leadership Award for his work in the redesign of regional accreditation. In this interview, Wolff discusses the creation of a new…