Please join us on Thursday, October 27 at Noon (Eastern) for a conversation between Richard Detweiler, GLCA’s president emeritus, and Steve Volk, the CTL’s Co-Director on the transformative power of residential liberal arts colleges and some of their unique attributes.
The residential liberal arts college is often seen either as a fossilized remnant of an earlier age or a luxury good for the privileged few. Even those of us who appreciate these institutions can have a hard time specifying their value in a world staunchly focused on ROI (return on investment), so we fall back on their famous graduates [think President Obama (Occidental) or Herbie Hancock (Grinnell)] or abundant anecdotes. Is stronger evidence available? The answer is yes, and it is compellingly offered in Detweiler’s The Evidence Liberal Arts Needs: Lives of Consequence, Inquiry, and Accomplishment (MIT Press 2021). We’ll talk about the ways in which residential liberal arts colleges can increase the impact of education on important life outcomes, and better combine academic and student life experiences. We’ll leave a lot of time for your questions. You can register here for the webinar.
For more about Detweiler’s book, click here. You can order Rick’s book via the Penguin Random House website at a 20% discount, with free shipping included. (Use Discount Code EVIDENCE20) [Offer valid while supplies last. Limit one discount code per person. Valid for one transaction. Discount code is not redeemable for cash, is non-transferable and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount. Valid on https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/675929/the-evidence-liberal-arts-needs-by-richard-a-detweiler/. US mailing address required. Expires 11/21/2022.]
Teaching and Learning
Moving Teaching Forward, Post-Pandemic (Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, October 19, 2022): Ask teaching and learning specialists and they’ll tell you that we pretty much know what works pedagogically and that requires relatively low lift. It’s as easy as A, B, C. Mintz presents his valuable educational innovation alphabet.
The Cell-Phone Challenge (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 20, 2022): No, limited use, and fully integrated, plus a study on cell use.
Listening to Students (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, October 17, 2022): So simple. So powerful. So rare?
4 Classroom Lessons from Haunted Houses (Sarah Rose Cavanagh, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 17, 2022): What research on “recreational fear” – the fun of being scared – can teach us about learning in the college classroom.
Critical Reading Skills: An Urgent Challenge (Alice S. Horning, Inside Higher Ed, October 17, 2022): A focus on improving students’ critical reading skills, while essential, is missing from many conversations about student success.
The State of Higher Ed
Let’s Subsidize Intellectual Curiosity Again (Nicole Barbaro, Inside Higher Ed, October 20, 2022): The student debt and tuition crises won’t be solved unless we start treating higher education as a public good.
A Playbook for Knocking Down Higher Ed (Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 18, 2022): A decade ago, Wisconsin’s governor made college a wedge issue. Now his approach has gone national.
The 50-Year War on Higher Education (Ellen Schrecker, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 4, 2022): To understand today’s political battles, you need to know how they began. [You might want to read along with The Politics of Higher Education (Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, October 20, 2022), which also stresses that this isn’t the first time colleges and universities have become political foils.]
The Chronicle of Higher Education has gathered eleven of its recent opinion pieces on the state of higher education under the heading, “Higher Ed Is on the Ballot” (October 18, 2022).
Beauty and the Liberal Arts (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, October 20, 2022): A 40-minute podcast with Margarita Mooney Suarez, author of The Love of Learning: Seven Dialogues on the Liberal Arts (Cluny Media, 2021).
Equity and Justice in Higher Ed
Excellence in Undergraduate Education Must Include Equity, Says Influential Group (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 19, 2022): Excellence founded in equity requires that we think differently about why we do what we do, not only what we do and how we do it.”
For Department Chairs
Ask the Chair: What if Your Leadership Style Is the Problem? (Kevin Dettmar, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 19, 2022): Three bad ways to manage an academic department that are all too common.
On the Bookshelf
Natasha K. Warikoo, Is Affirmative Action Fair? The Myth of Equity in College Admissions (Polity, 2022). The author argues that the question in her book’s title is the wrong question to ask. Rather, we should ask, “Does affirmative action align with the mission of higher education in the United States today?” Interview with author by Eric Hoover (Chronicle of Higher Education, October 14, 2022); shorter article by Warikoo: College Admissions Should Be About Fulfilling Institutions’ Missions – Affirmative Action Can Help Them Do It (Brookings, October 20, 2022).
Virtual Forum
Looking for another virtual forum on October 27 after being inspired by the CTL forum at noon? The Chronicle of Higher Education is offering one at 2:00 PM that day on reaching disengaged students in the classroom. More information here; register here.
Have a short article or some news related to teaching and learning at your institution that you’d like to share with colleagues? Send your contribution along to us. Also, please email Charla White (white@glca.org) if you have colleagues who would like to receive this weekly report.
GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning
Co-Directors:
Steven Volk (steven.Volk@oberlin.edu)
Colleen Monahan Smith (smith@glca.org)
Charla White (white@glca.org)