Education Commons^™

Retaining Students Of Color: The Office Of Ahana Student Programs At Boston College, Donald Brown

Trotter Review

On September 1, 1978, I assumed responsibility for what was then known as the Office of Minority Student Programs at Boston College. The charge given to me was to alter an embarrassingly high attrition rate of 83 percent for a target group of black and Latino students who had been identified by the university's Admissions Office as having high levels of motivation and potential, but who would require assistance if they were to succeed at the university.

Over the course of the past sixteen years, a great deal has transpired at Boston College. An important change was made in the …

Notes On Higher Education In The 1990s, Zelda F. Gamson

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article consists of a series of essays written for The Academic Workplace, the newsletter of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education, since 1990. The backdrop for the essays is the increasing inequality in higher education caused by changes in the political economy of higher education, especially in New England. The first essay analyzes the roots of contemporary faculty dissatisfaction with their work lives by tracing the impacts of the expansion of higher education, changes in the student body, and greater government involvement in higher education. Subsequent essays discuss multicultural education, faculty shortages, political correctness, responses to …

The Changing Nature Of Universities, Ernest A. Lynton

New England Journal of Public Policy

Excessive emphasis on research as the dominant measure of institutional as well as individual prestige and values has created a critical mismatch between the activities of American universities and societal expectations. This article traces the origins of the resulting crisis of purpose to the post-World War II surge in federal research support and articulates the urgent need for basic changes in university priorities at a time teaching and professional services have acquired both new importance and new complexity. It further describes current efforts toward a more balanced view of the components of university missions and a resulting shift in faculty …

The Impact Of A College Community Service Laboratory On Students' Personal, Social, And Cognitive Outcomes, Dwight Giles Jr., Janet Eyler

Higher Education

This exploratory study attempts to· answer the question: can a required service-learning experience of limited intensity and duration have an impact on the development of college students as participating citizens of their community? Students who provided community service as part of a one credit "community service laboratory" showed a significant increase in their belief that people can make a difference, that they should be involved in community service and particularly in leadership and political influence, and in their commitment to perform volunteer service the following semester. They also became less likely to blame social service clients for their misfortunes and …

The Binational English & Spanish Telecommunications Network, Armando A. Arias Jr.

SSGS Faculty Publications and Presentations

BESTNET was established in the early 1980's, as an effort to link universities on both sides of the U.S.- Mexico border through microwave, satellite and cable television technologies. In the late 1980's BESTNET focused primarily on the development of asynchronous computer mediated learning and teaching in an internationally networked virtual environment. For the past six years (1990's) BESTNET has strengthened its binational ties and continued its "high tech" focus through the development of active or vibrant model technology which is assisting in the creation of an on-line binational university setting that is "borderless" (albeit, seamless to the user). Today, this …