This article addresses the broad-based reform movement led by state and federal policy makers and designed to increase dramatically the number of students graduating from the nation's colleges and universities. This movement--known as "the completion agenda"--aims to collect more and better data about students' educational progress toward degrees,…

Civic learning, and education's vital purpose to cultivate engaged and effective citizens, is a national imperative. Civic education is consistent with President Obama's goal of regaining competitiveness in the global marketplace, and it is consistent with the goal of increasing student achievement and closing achievement gaps. There's much more…

The recession of 2008-2009 and the continuing decline in local, state, and federal funds available to support higher education have resulted in serious budget cuts and belt-tightening. Given that faculty constitute an institution's most costly resource, it was not surprising, though it is nonetheless disheartening, to learn of the University of…

Saint Mary's College, a single-gender Catholic institution in northern Indiana with approximately 1,600 students, has just revised a general education curriculum that had been in place for nearly forty years. The board of trustees unanimously approved the new curriculum in April 2010. In this article, the author discusses seven key lessons learned…

Experiential learning opportunities can enrich an undergraduate liberal education and produce graduates who are prepared to grapple, imaginatively and responsibly, with the complex challenges they will face throughout their lives. A growing body of empirical evidence supports that contention. Yet much remains to be learned about how to lead…

Are new approaches to transforming undergraduate learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) making a difference? If so, how? How do people know? And what next? These are the questions explored in a 1999 report from Project Kaleidoscope, which concluded by making predictions and recommendations for the coming decade. Now…

The governance of most colleges and universities is shared among the board of trustees, the administration, and the faculty. Most four-year institutions endorse the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities (1966), which asserts that the faculty has "primary" authority over the…

"Saving Higher Education in the Age of Money" is a critique of the pernicious syndrome set in motion when the means and concomitant benefits of higher education--money and prestige, in particular--became increasingly accepted as its most important and fundamental ends. The book contends, on the basis of extensive evidence and documentation, that…

Presents thinking from the Project on the Future of Higher Education on the economic climate for higher education and the possibilities of a transformative, rather than "muddling through," approach to offering a hopeful future for the quality of faculty work life and for meaningful student learning. (EV)

Offers six lessons learned from intentionally innovative colleges as guideposts for change for institutions striving to attain increased effectiveness and efficiency: create a self-fulfilling prophecy; cultivate the whole, not just the parts; build a culture of engagement; honor experiential learning; sell hard; and find a subsidy or innovate…

Describes changes at Wesleyan University (Connecticut) since 1997 to foster curricular coherence in the liberal arts without imposing a curricular core. Changes include an on-line registration system, a curriculum plan for the first two years which helps students create sequences of interdisciplinary study in addition to the major, Web-based…

Examines two positions in the debate on how best to teach science to undergraduates: science literacy for all students and doing science as science is done. Notes the reform efforts of Project Kaleidoscope and the Science Education for New Civic Engagement and Responsibilities (SENCER) project of the American Association of Colleges and…

Analyzes data from a survey of full-time non-tenure-track faculty at 88 colleges, as well as federal surveys of college faculty. Finds an increase in new staffing patterns that use full-time faculty on term contracts at both two- and four-year institutions. Identifies forces stimulating these changes, but notes worrisome evidence of a two-class…

Feminist theory is reexamined in the context of recent theory concerning pragmatic liberal education, and many similar principles are found. Topics discussed include feminist theory and the structure of college administration; the future of reform; and collaborative leadership for change. It is argued that both hierarchy and homogeneity must be…

Describes the evolution of DePaul University's (Illinois) efforts to build ties with its surrounding community through service learning and a week-long freshman immersion in issues related to Chicago. The institution's own history is chronicled briefly, and some of the inherent difficulties in establishing and sustaining meaningful community-based…