Far too often, Black women like the author, and so many others from groups that have been historically marginalized in STEM, are made to "assume some kind of position" as they navigate the hostility of a disciplinary culture that was never intended for them but has, nevertheless, benefited from them. On varying levels, that…

In this article, Lori Varlotta, president of small liberal arts institution Hiram College, describes how she and her team have launched a systemic change process that includes modifying the entire academic structure: first-year experience, majors, core curriculum, graduation requirements, and student learning outcomes. Hiram's model for academic…

The term "inclusive excellence," made popular by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and adopted by many schools across the country is in some ways unfortunate, in that the concept of "including," arguably, assumes the priority and ongoing dominance of a given reality into which one may (or may not) be granted…

In Texas, educators working to coordinate the efforts of fifty community colleges, thirty-eight universities, and six university systems are bringing the resources of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP) initiative to bear in order to ensure that the state's nearly 1.5…

In the late 1990s, the wild hope of the Lilly Endowment was that a set of American higher education institutions would respond to the call for an exploration of vocation, giving a portion of their precious institutional lives to explore this question with undergraduates. Through projects on multiple campuses, the intent was to learn whether and…

Higher education in the United States has been a source of pride but also the target of continuous debates, criticisms, and calls for reform. In the first decade of this century, concerns were focused on the effectiveness of educational practices and the quality of student learning, as well as access and escalating costs. As a consequence, there…

The physical fitness required to perform complex athletic feats has a parallel in the intellectual fitness it takes to perform complex mental tasks. At the heart of liberal education sits the idea that moderate training in several disciplines is better than intensive training in just one. Through exercising students' abilities in interpreting…

"A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy's Future," commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education, was published by the Association of American Colleges and Universities in 2012. Representing the work of the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (2012), the report builds a strong case for higher…

In describing the purpose of college, author Robert Scott believes that undergraduate education is and must be as much about character and citizenship as about careers and commerce. In addition to majoring in a particular subject, and in order to fulfill the purpose of a university education, Scott says that undergraduate students must learn about…

Several years ago, when the author was associate dean in the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, a new senior administrator on campus expressed the view that one of their premier first-year experience programs in the college was too expensive and that a different model, based on an approach taken at the administrator's previous…

Higher education is not only about money. At whatever appropriate cost as borne by whomever, it is supposed to provide life-long value to the students and to society. Yet some critics now complain that in the current system, with its rising costs, students are not in general learning much if anything, and there is a good deal of data to suggest…

The direction of innovation and reform in science education is moving toward a student-centered learning paradigm that is organized around core concepts and competencies, and engaged through empirically supported instructional practices. What forms of assessment would support these educational aims? Several characteristics of a compatible…

In 1990, David Breneman asked the provocative question, are we losing our liberal arts colleges? More than twenty years later, it is time to ask Breneman's question again: in 2012, what is the position of liberal arts colleges in the landscape of American higher education? The liberal arts college, a distinctively American institution, has been a…

Recognizing that the term "global education" has become commonplace but, too often, is put forward without adequate substance, this proposal seeks to envision a foundational higher education for the twenty-first century. The authors believe it is important to imagine an education fit for global possibilities because theirs has become a world in…

Global perspective-taking involves three critical, developmentally based questions: (1) How do I know?; (2) Who am I?; and (3) How do I relate? As students grapple with these questions, their answers mutually reinforce the cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal domains of human development, highlighting its holistic and integrated nature.…