The ubiquitous credit hour figures largely in higher education. From our first orientations sessions when sincere advisors explain the reasons that we needed nine credits of this or fifteen credits of that, to counting credits when planning for graduation, to looking at jobs and institutional practice – academic credit is the currency in the realm…
American Higher Education Transformed, Smith & Bender, eds.
American Higher Education Transformed, 1940-2005: Documenting the National Discourse, Wilson Smith and Thomas Bender, eds., Johns Hopkins University, 2008 Smith and Bender’s book is a small encyclopedia of primary source documents about higher education. A short introductory section provides an overview of key topics. The editors chose an interesting structure of broad categories: The Terrain…
Convocation
On Monday, Curry College held its second annual convocation. The institution was founded in the 1870s, but for many years convocation was not part of the tradition. It is now. The sun was shining and faces were smiling. More than 600 new first years processed through a double line of cheering faculty, entering our Student…
Why College?
Does anyone go to college today for anything other than practical reasons? Are all students looking for jobs? I very much enjoy talking with high school students about college. At Curry College, I regularly see prospective students and their families, from the early inquiry stage to applicant, accepted students, and then, possibly, matriculant. When the…
Starbucked
Taylor Clark’s Starbucked: a double tall tale of caffeine, commerce and culture has made me sensitive to the carefully engineered spaces of commerce that now dot our cities and malls. Engineering does not fully capture the totality of the effort, either. These spaces – the Panera’s, the Barnes and Nobles, the A&F and the hundreds…
On Quads
Space matters. And to the surprise of many, but not, perhaps, the marketing gurus at Starbucks, space matters a great deal in a world often navigated through screens. The ordering and arrangement of space signals values, summons emotion and establishes expectations for behavior. Within the realm of education, for example, the classroom serves as model…
Welcome
From my perch on the quad, at the periphery, where the angles are not always 90 degrees and often change – simply delighted that you stopped by. The blog provides a space for different kinds discussions and observations about higher education – particularly the interplay between what happens within the academy and what happens outside…