One of the more intriguing trends at the turn of the twenty-first century is the ascendant influence of religion in various aspects of American life. The renewed interest in religion and spirituality is not just a function of aging baby boomers acknowledging their mortality. The University of Pennsylvania reported that 86 percent of those between…

The concept of diversity has come a long way in U.S. higher education, and its impact has been far reaching. Over the last three and a half decades, diversity and its related interventions have evolved to encompass a broad set of purposes, issues, and initiatives on college campuses. The earliest initiatives to increase minority access on…

Leaders at every university agree that educating students in the practice of open-minded inquiry is a key component of undergraduate education, but creating a classroom and wider campus climate that is truly open to multiple perspectives on hot-button political issues is extremely difficult to accomplish. This is true whether the majority opinion…

Describes how, at the University of Maryland, the potentially disruptive events of September 11 had the effect of uniting diverse groups; the spontaneous as well as the planned activities forged a community with common ethos and purpose. (EV)

Suggests that rather than being led by the rhetoric of "Walden Two" experiments with incentives and rewards, faculty development can best be informed and guided by the motives that brought faculty to the profession: autonomy, community, recognition, efficacy. (EV)

One of the best ways to make student learning come alive on college campuses is to improve collaboration between students and the academic affairs staff. The general-education program, where philosophy and curriculum align most closely with the student-affairs concern for the whole student, is an appropriate place to start. (MSE)

If college faculty and institutional commitments to academic integrity were to achieve a status similar to that of academic freedom, there could be a transformation of the intellectual community. Faculty must see academic integrity as a complement, not a challenge, to academic freedom; a closer affinity of the two may further energize both. (MSE)

Colleges can create conditions to maximize the learning that occurs in an environment with a diverse student population. Studies indicate that students who interact with diverse peers demonstrate more complex thinking linked to both cognitive and to social development. Research literature provides strong support for institutional commitment to…

Our higher education system does not nurture the inner lives of students or help them acquire the self-understanding that is the basis for a satisfying life, nor does it provide the safe and nurturing environment people need in order to grow. What is needed is a more holistic way of conceiving education, one that accepts the importance of…

Based on existing data about colleges and universities and their students, a study examined the factors in the college environment that contribute to or inhibit students' character development. Results indicate that colleges that take character-building seriously invest significant human and financial resources. A six-step agenda outlines what…

In an interview, two college students discuss aspects of the college experience, including the transition from high school to college, the most helpful general education and other courses, choice of major, classroom communication, curriculum relevance, effective teaching methods, and particularly important experiences and skills learned. (MSE)

A faculty member's experience at the American University in Cairo (Egypt) reveals that pluralism and tolerance are western concepts, even within the college curriculum. National identity affords cultural stability: where the American melting-pot experience is reinforced by the notion of cultural diversity, the national identity of Egypt is…

Relationships between college faculty and administrators are at a crossroads; administrators want more efficient institutional functioning, and faculty want more resources and protection from external interference. However, quality and efficiency are not antithetical, and faculty and administrators can develop both, cooperatively, by focusing on…

Innovative approaches to values/ethics education in higher education suggest renewed commitment to human values. Two models of values education are values-across-the-curriculum, which assumes that values education is a responsibility for the institution's education programs as a whole; and civic education, built on a conception of the habits…

The development of a women's studies program at conservative Utah State University is described. The anticipated controversy over this curricular innovation has not materialized because the developers followed a careful strategy for designing and implementating the program. (JMD)