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…

"Experience" is a healthy-sounding word, but what do educators really mean by it? And how do educators persuade people that higher education fosters important forms of experience, that "experience" is an integral part of any vital liberal learning? The author suggests that educators might begin by getting clearer in their own minds just what they…

Founded on the premise of a connection between the neglect of the core purposes of undergraduate liberal education, on the one hand, and certain patterns of disengagement exhibited by students, on the other, the Bringing Theory to Practice project provides support for campus programs as well as for research on the connection of certain forms of…

Faculty members who work directly to advance the institutional mission of teaching, learning, and at some institutions, research, represent the core human resource of higher education. They are the stewards of campus leadership and decision making. While the faculty role has changed over time, leadership has remained critical to innovation in…

In this article, the author talks about big questions of meaning and value that young people pose and how to respond to their concerns about big questions. He relates the story of his granddaughter, Charlotte, who, at the age of one, would climb up on the stairs not from choice or whim, but "because they're there." For her, it was not play, but…

There is a certain kind of liberal educator who bases his or her practice on a particular attitude toward the "Big Questions." The questions of fundamental literacy in K-12 education, or of expertise in vocational and professional education, may be just as important, but they are seen as quite different in kind. Indeed, the questions of liberal…

This article presents the author's examination of the role of faculty in the new academy. He contends that undergraduate education reforms that were launched in the last three decades of the twentieth century, although creative and energetic, have not been fully integrated into the central mission of most institutions, structured into the reward…

Just as the African tribal maxim proclaims that "it takes a village to raise a child," this author argues that it takes the whole campus community--students, faculty, and administrators--to effectively educate a student. The goal of educators should not be simply to reduce cheating, but to find innovative and creative ways to use academic…

Two college teaching styles are compared: that of the advocate, who teaches what he believes in passionately, and that of the devil's advocate, who tries to teach either against what he believes or against what he suspects his students will likely believe. Both are seen as important to the liveliness and rigor of a college curriculum. (MSE)

True college-faculty development must be holistic and integrative of all the needs and activities of individual faculty members, and undertaken by faculty and institution together to shape the fabric of academic life. Faculty must also work with professional associations to help ensure that doctoral programs are preparing students for a sufficient…

Rather than turning away from faculty governance, colleges and universities need to renew commitment to faculty who can teach, keep up research, and attend to running their institutions. As attrition diminishes the power of senior faculty, the new managerial class generates authority structures that make faculty governance irrelevant. Young…

College faculty leaders, presidents, and board members must affirm their obligations to the public trust, in part by taking more responsibility for creating accountability through accreditation rather than serving political interests. Institutional integrity is built by cultivating innovation, self-scrutiny, and ongoing public discourse. (MSE)

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…

The evolution and design of an interdisciplinary honors course at the University of Maryland at College Park are described. The course, on knowledge and its human consequences, brings together faculty experts, "teacher-learner" faculty, and first-year honors students to explore different kinds of knowledge and their philosophical, social, and…

The academic profession, whose responsibilities and standards are less clearly defined than those of other learned professions, stands in need of fresh and continuing reflection on its role, suggests the author. (Editor/LBH)