Higher Education

Jeff Frank develops the idea that presence is central to liberal education and offers suggestions for how professors can become an educative presence for students. The goal of this book is an invitation to other professors who value liberal education to think about how to develop their own lived defense of liberal education, each day, in their own classrooms. The tone of the book is meant to be invitational, at times even conversational, and the book concludes with some direct suggestions for how professors can live their own defense of liberal education.

Scott Hartley first heard the terms fuzzy and techie while studying political science at Stanford University. If you majored in the humanities or social sciences, you were a fuzzy. If you majored in the computer sciences, you were a techie. This informal division has quietly found its way into a default assumption that has misled the business world for decades: that it's the techies who drive innovation. Hartley reveals the counterintuitive reality of business today: it's actually the fuzzies - not the techies - who are playing the key roles in developing the most creative and successful new business ideas. They are often the ones who understand the life issues that need solving and offer the best approaches for doing so. It is they who are bringing context to code, and ethics to algorithms. They also bring the management and communication skills, the soft skills that are so vital to spurring growth.

Political theorist and professor Jonathan Marks argues that the true purpose of college is to encourage people to be reasonable. Drawing on the ideas of John Locke and other thinkers, Marks presents the case for why, now more than ever, conservatives must not give up on higher education. He recognizes that professors and administrators frequently adopt the language and priorities of the left, but he explains why conservative nightmare visions of liberal persecution and indoctrination bear little resemblance to what actually goes on in college classrooms. Marks examines why advocates for liberal education struggle to offer a coherent defense of themselves against their conservative critics, and demonstrates why such a defense must rest on the cultivation of reason and of pride in being reasonable.

There is a constant drumbeat of commentary claiming that STEM subjects--science, technology, engineering, and math--are far more valuable in today's economy than traditional liberal arts courses such as philosophy or history. Many even claim that the liberal arts are "under siege" by neoliberal politicians and cost-conscious university administrators. In a forceful response, The Problem with Rules establishes the essential value of the liberal arts as the pedagogical pathway to critical thinking and moral character and argues for more not less emphasis in higher education. John Churchill asserts that the liberal arts are more than decorative frills. Drawing from the philosophy of Wittgenstein to craft a cogent, inspired argument, Churchill insists on the liberal arts' indispensable role, providing in this book a clarion call to politicians, university administrators, and all Americans to recognize and actively support and nurture the liberal arts.

From the arts, pedagogy, and writing to social justice, the digital humanities, and the African American experience, the essays that comprise Redefining Liberal Arts Education in the Twenty-First Century bring attention to the vast array of ways in which the liberal arts continue to be fundamental parts of any education. In an increasingly transactional environment, in which students believe a degree must lead to a specific job and set income, colleges and universities should take heed of the advice from these scholars. The liberal arts do not lend themselves to the capacity to do a single job, but to do any job. The effective teaching of critical and analytical thinking, writing, and speaking creates educated citizens. In a divisive twenty-first-century world, such a citizenry holds the tools to maintain a free society, redefining the liberal arts in a manner that may be key to the American republic.

Redesigning liberal education requires both pragmatic approaches to discover what works and radical visions of what is possible. The future of liberal education in the United States, in its current form, is fraught but full of possibility. Today's institutions are struggling to maintain viability, sustain revenue, and assert value in the face of rising costs. But we should not abandon the model of pragmatic liberal learning that has made America's colleges and universities the envy of the world. Instead, Redesigning Liberal Education argues, we owe it to students to reform liberal education in ways that put broad and measurable student learning as the highest priority. Redesigning Liberal Education reveals how humanizing forces, including critical thinking, collaboration, cross-cultural competencies, resilience, and empathy, can help drive our world.

The book that every dean and department chair needs to survive--and thrive--in the twenty-first-century university. First released in 2006, The College Administrator's Survival Guide has served as the bible for a generation of provosts, deans, department chairs, and program directors. In this revised and updated edition, Gunsalus guides rookie administrators and seasoned veterans through today's most pressing higher-education challenges.

Revamp senior administration organization for more effective governance. An in-depth look at the current practice of governance in higher education and explores solutions for more effective functioning. Written by a former college president, the book provides an insider's perspective on the growing tensions around the traditional shared governance model and identifies the key challenges facing trustees, presidents, senior administrators, and faculty.

In this concise guide Brian C. Mitchell and W. Joseph King analyze how colleges operate. Widely experienced as trustees, administrators, and faculty, they understand that colleges must update their practices, monetize their assets, and focus on core educational strategies in order to build strong institutions. Mitchell and King offer a frank yet optimistic vision for how colleges can change without losing their fundamental strengths. To survive and become sustainable, they must be centers of dynamic learning, as well as economic engines able to power regional, state, and national economies. Rejecting the notion that American colleges are holdovers from a bygone time, How to Run a College shows instead that they are centers of experimentation and innovation that heavily influence higher education not only in the United States but also worldwide.

Women face unique challenges as they move into senior leadership roles at colleges and universities. This guide provides them with the frank, supportive advice they need to advance their careers and lead with excellence. For years, Marjorie Hass, now the president of Rhodes College, was approached by women in higher education looking for advice and support as they took on leadership roles and navigated challenging career paths. Eventually, she began offering online seminars so she could meet in small groups to answer questions and encourage women to develop mutually supportive relationships. In A Leadership Guide for Women in Higher Education, Hass draws on her sixteen years of senior leadership experience, her work with national higher education organizations, and her mentorship work with dozens of women to address fundamental issues women face when they lead in higher education. Aiming to level the playing field by giving women the insightful, supportive advice they need to advance in their careers and to lead with excellence, Hass combines practical information with career coaching.

In these days when every college or university needs to make the best use of resources, Student Affairs for Academic Administrators is intended to help academic administrators make the best use of one vital campus resource: student affairs. By providing this concise introduction to student affairs as a discipline and a profession, the authors of this volume provide a foundation for working together to improve the student experience and enhance learning.

Institutional Advancement comprehensively reviews and evaluates the published empirical research on advancement in higher education of the last 23 years, covering fundraising, alumni relations, public relations, marketing, and the role of institutional leadership in all of these.

This book will help new department chairs, directors and deans understand and become more proficient in their financial management role within the institution. Highly accessible; practitioners will be able to put the book's guidance to immediate use in their work. Grounded in the latest knowledge base and filled with examples from across all types of institutions.

A comprehensive text on the policies, strategies and practices that shape postsecondary enrollments. Combines relevant theories and research with applied chapters on the management of offices such as admissions, financial aid, and the registrar to provide a comprehensive guide to the complex world of Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM).

The authors revise current theories of college student departure, including Tinto's, making the important distinction between residential and commuter colleges and universities, and thereby taking into account the role of the external environment and the characteristics of social communities in student departure and retention.

Argues for a higher education for all and positions higher education as a human right necessary for the well-being of citizens and democracy. Introduces the concept of desire as an underpinning for brand theory, then uses an explication of the concept of relevance linked with desire to further our understanding of higher education as an emancipatory project. Explores brand identity, which is shown to be a retroactive investment of naming. The author also examines the idea of the liberal arts and provides an ethnographic and critical discourse analysis of the liberal arts college.