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 educational purpose of the curricular breadth encouraged at liberal arts institutions is for students to acquire a variety of skills and knowledge, but it is often claimed that most skills are taught "across the curriculum," and liberal arts colleges tend to downplay disciplinary information when listing their educational goals. In this…

The great naturalist Edward O. Wilson's (1998) recent plea for the "consilience" of knowledge should strike a chord in the heart of every generalist. Invoking the unfinished agenda of the Enlightenment, Wilson has called for a rapprochement among the several branches of learning so that they can be viewed as interrelated and constituting a whole.…

Some assume that the only way academics can engage the politics of the day is by coming out of their ivory tower and protesting in front of the White House. In conveying knowledge, the academy has a far more important and subversive way of dealing with political issues. Knowledge provides people with a way to perceive the world. Imaginative…

In this article, the author discusses seven critical lessons for navigating a leadership position in higher education. The author focuses on developing a personal means of remaining centered regardless of circumstances or situations as well as building an ethical foundation for one's work. He uses spiraling as a metaphor to describe his own…

The United States is currently undergoing a dramatic economic transformation, shifting from an economy based on physical inputs to one based on intellectual inputs, or human creativity. In this article, the author discusses a creative economy that must be expanded beyond science, technology, and design to include all applications of creativity and…

In this article, the author discusses that in January 2006, the "New York Times" headlined a new $3.75 billion federal initiative that would give $750 grants to low-income college students who successfully completed a "rigorous secondary school program of study" (Dillon 2006). The author argues that this quiet addition to the budget bill could…

Senior academic leaders are in consensus that, for purposes of tenure, a candidate's significant contributions to collaborative scholarship should be valued highly. The fundamental issue is how to give due weight and proper consideration for purposes of tenure to the intellectual work and scholarly worth of various kinds of contributions. As a…

In this article, the author discusses the issues on the impression of today's students towards liberal education. Results found that, students did not have a working definition of a liberal education and did not spontaneously value the outcomes of such an education. Consequently, students tend to focus on specific course-oriented outcomes; and…

There are various ways to succeed in recruiting and retaining underrepresented minority (URM) doctoral students; but key to them all is the creation of real student-faculty relationships, which demonstrate by example that diversity and excellence can and should coexist. This cannot be delegated or done indirectly, and no amount of outreach, campus…

For four years, the author of this article was the English department learning community coordinator in one of the larger learning community (LC) programs in the country. During his tenure, the number of composition sections linked with courses in other departments grew from a handful to sixty-four. Over this same period, the retention rates for…

This article presents a statement of the Board of Directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, which was endorsed by member representatives at the association's 2006 annual meeting. In their statement, the Board of Directors revisit the basic principles and discuss the role of academic freedom. Four misconceptions about…

Academic freedom is an institutionally specific type of liberty. It gains its character from the rules of evidence and reasoning used by communities of scientists and scholars to determine the relative value of truth-claims. One of the finest virtues of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Statement on Academic Freedom and…

Political pressure on colleges and universities has been a matter of common debate and concern since 1934. That was the year the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Association of American Colleges (the precursor of AAC&U) established a series of conferences in order to reaffirm and develop the 1925 Conference Statement on…

In this article, the authors state that liberal education depends upon--presupposes--unfettered thought, inquiry, and expression. This is necessary not only for the production of knowledge but also for the preparation of citizens in a diverse democracy. A vital campus is one where ideas meet, mix, conflict, engage, and emerge changed by the…