One of the most interesting and useful books on higher education that I have read in quite some time is Gina Ann Garcia’s Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Opportunities for Colleges and Universities. It is relevant and provocative. Most importantly, it is also quite helpful to scholars, faculty, administrators and institutions as they think through how and…
Navigating Personal History: Gina Barreca, Gender and Dartmouth
Gina Barreca is academic success, a women who gets things done and does them well. One of the first women to attend Dartmouth College in the 1970s, she earned a PhD from the CUNY Graduate Center and has enjoyed a long career at the University of Connecticut where she holds the title of Board of…
Brené Brown – Knowing How to Dare to Lead
Brené Brown is a phenomenon, an academic entrepreneur and cultural powerhouse. A social worker with a doctorate, a scholar and researcher, Brown’s “day job” is as a faculty member at the University of Houston. Her work and impact is much broader than the classroom and academia. In 2010 Brown gave a Ted talk on the…
Quality History of Urban Universities
The former Chancellor of Rutgers University-Newark, Steven J. Diner, retired from administration to return to his roots as a faculty member. He celebrated the transition by writing a very solid book of history, Universities and Their Cities: Urban Higher Education in America. Uniquely qualified for the task, Diner had taught urban issues for years. His…
Working Against Equity
Descriptive statistics sometimes do not receive the respect that they deserve. It’s unfortunate, for in the right hands, with wisdom, judgment and expertise, descriptive statistics can make a complicated story clear. One of the better uses of descriptive statistics that I have read in quite some time is found in Charles T. Clotfelter’s Unequal Colleges…
Imagining A Different University
Raewyn Connell is a world-famous sociologist who holds a University Chair at the University of Sydney. Extraordinarily prolific and influential in several fields, Connell recently focused her attention on the research university. In The Good University: What Universities Actually Do and Why It’s Time for Radical Change, Connell provides a critical and empirical look at…
Anchor Institutions Redux
The concept of colleges and universities as place-bound societal institutions with missions to improve individual lives and the health of their communities, in other words – as anchor institutions – strikes me as increasingly relevant to the future of American public higher education. Yes, higher education does offer advancement to its students, and yes, institutions…