The diversity of a student body may call for new structures to meet their learning needs. The traditional college organization (the course unit of instruction, the academic department, and the lack of easy interdepartmental cooperation) may hinder both the articulation of common educational problems and the solutions to them. (Author/MLW)

Liberal arts colleges must take care against seeking to attract students by offering vocationally-oriented courses without solid foundations in theory. (Editor/PG)

In response to Lanham (HE 527 588), the author interprets student responses to a poetry course illustrating such responses as disorientation, confusion about the course's purposes, anxiety about ability to succeed, and resistance to teaching. Also suggested is more faculty interdisciplinary involvement. (DB)

Outlines aspects of the apparatus which should function on campus in the effective allocation of both rewards and punishments in the shaping of faculty achievements as well as the resolution of faculty grievances, that is, academic due process. (Author/KE)

In a long-standing debate, those who argue that "useful" studies are liberal have often appealed to Franklin, while those who oppose this have usually appealed to Aristotle. Both of these historical appeals are flawed, however, a fact revealing deeper misunderstanding in the contemporary debate. (Author/MSE)

Conflicting views on the purpose of the undergraduate college curriculum would hold that either (1) the curriculum is too fragmented and needs coherence and structure; or (2) the curriculum is too restricted and needs to be more open and diverse. (DB)

The article proposes a list of expected proficiencies for graduating economics majors in the following areas: gaining access to existing knowledge; displaying command of existing knowledge; displaying ability to draw out existing knowledge; utilizing existing knowledge; and creating new knowledge. Questions of evaluation, curriculum development,…

The liberal wish to conserve recently established curricular eclecticism and the conservative wish for a new, prescriptive curriculum reflect profoundly different views of the nature of knowledge and education; however, they also draw on arguments, attitudes, and assumptions that go as far back in educational philosophy as Plato. (MSE)

Even during the reconstruction of general education in the college curriculum there remains great confusion about what general education should be, made worse by a preoccupation with educational process rather than outcomes. Serious attention to institutional, mission, philosophy, goals, and structures is necessary, and will enhance the faculty's…

Lack of support for language and literature study in higher education reflects the larger attitudes of American culture: that learning for its own sake has little value. This provincialism is outmoded, dangerous, and intellectually indefensible, and must be eliminated in order to redefine language and literature studies. (MSE)

It is argued that, if today's college students are to be prepared for citizenship and careers, they must learn about both the complexity of American society and global interconnections and that this is accomplished best through general education that is both intercultural and interdisciplinary. (MSE)

Curricular incoherence at the undergraduate level cannot successfully be countered by lower-division distribution requirements and proposals for a core curriculum. An alternative appropriate to a technological age of various specializations emphasizes development of communication and rhetorical skills across disciplines. (DB)

Recent departmental-level efforts at general education curriculum reform are surveyed. Discussion is given to English departments, which are well suited to lead general education reform, because they can learn from these experiences. (MSE)

The concern for general education as one of several possible responses to the current ills of higher education is discussed. The Federated Learning Communities of Stony Brook, wherein the environment and the content of general education are dovetailed and mutually supportive, is described. (Author/MLW)