Simon Sinek, founder of Start With Why, is an unshakable optimist. He is a trained ethnographer and author of three books. Fascinated by the leaders who make the greatest impact in their organizations and in the world, he has discovered some remarkable patterns about how they think, act, and communicate, as well as about the environments these…

To increase engaged participation while teaching the construction of race and impacts of racism in predominately white classrooms (PWCs), Jasmine Harris uses an ongoing assignment that asks students to repackage what they are learning, bridging racial theory introduced in assigned readings with students' synthesis of course material to create…

This conversation started in the fall of 2019 and continued through the pandemic transitions in the spring of 2020. The conversation was between faculty and graduate students about what student affairs (SA) says it values and what practice actually looks like. The authors talk about SA aspiring to support all students personally, academically, and…

In this wide-ranging interview, Krista Tippett, a Peabody Award-winning broadcaster and the New York Times bestselling author of "Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living" (Penguin Press, 2016) shares her perspective on wisdom, the reemergence of hope, and the need to talk about values.

In Executive Editor Frank Shushok's final interview, Freeman Hrabowski shares some of what he has learned in his long tenure as the President of University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He stresses the importance of attending to our values, and one that he considers especially significant is humility. Being humble has helped him rebound and learn…

Co-rumination, a social process between two friends, is defined as the frequent and excessive discussion of personal problems. Like body image and alcohol use, it is one of those complicated issues embedded in larger cultural realities, which makes it universally recognizable. On campus, co-rumination has deleterious side effects: it challenges…

In this article, William Deresiewicz discusses his Book, "Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite & the Way to a Meaningful Life." He shares his perspective on some of the ways higher education is missing the mark.

For years, the authors have heard the pleas of students, administrators, staff, and faculty to be able to write more personally--for publication, course assignments, theses, and dissertations. They have heard educators throughout the United States talk about the value of personal narrative writing as a way to take a different in-depth look at an…

Across the broad spectrum of disciplines and departments within higher education, it sometimes feels like there is little that unites them. They talk about silos, they bemoan divergent and fragmented efforts, and they refer frequently to "them" and "they," regardless of where they are on the organizational chart. However, there is one topic that…

The author challenges her students and herself to engage with tough issues like class, race, gender, disability, and homophobia. In this article, she discusses how she helps them learn from, and even embrace, the conflict that inevitably arises. Constructive management of classroom conflict begins with creating a cooperative learning environment…

Charles Schroeder, "About Campus" executive editor, interviews Russell Edgerton, director of the Pew Forum on Undergraduate Learning, to get his views of a number of important issues including the status of the undergraduate reform movement; the role of assessment in performance improvement; and the emergence of deep learning as a new focus in the…

Presents an interview with George Kuh, who has been a leading proponent of focusing attention on the nature of the undergraduate experience--particularly the degree to which students are meaningfully engaged in a variety of educationally purposeful activities that enhance their learning and success. (GCP)

Since the mid-1960s, the work of Alexander Astin--Allan M. Cartter Professor of Higher Education at the University of California-Los Angeles and director of the Higher Education Research Institute--has served as both bellwether for and mirror of the American college and university system. He was there to study and shed light on the student…

Shifting an entire institution to embrace undergraduate education as a central mission is a daunting task, particularly if that institution has a history of professional and graduate education and enrolls many thousands of students. Steve Ballard, until this year provost of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), and Pat Long, UMKC…

Presents exerts from a question and answer session with Robert Berdahl, chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, presented to the National Press Club in 1999. Title of the talk was "The Public University in the Twenty-First Century." In particular, questions addressed the problem of working toward diversity following the…