Despite the belief that college-going is an intellectual process by which people become more knowledgeable, evidence of this remains sketchy. (Author/HS)

The author maintains that IQ is largely heredity and rejects compensatory programs as failures, suggesting other interesting avenues to close present social gaps. (Editor)

This article recounts a real-life conversation relating to beliefs, opinions, and attitudes. It asserts the country's democracy needs intellectual debate, but increasingly lacks the inclination and skills to have it. Like students within their homogeneous peer groups, American citizens increasingly inhabit intellectually gated communities.…

The importance of incorporating discussion into college lecture classes is discussed, problems in starting and expanding exchange of ideas are examined, and techniques for "raising the intellectual temperature" of a class are offered. Anecdotal examples are drawn from observations of teachers in a variety of discipline contexts. (MSE)

The task of general education should be to provide a broad framework for understanding, an intellectual context within which factual information can meaningfully be comprehended. Each framework should have at least three qualities in common: an historical dimension, an intellectual dimension, and an analytical dimension. (MLW)

The decline of the liberal arts, as signaled by declining enrollments, fewer majors, and the ascendency of preprofessional education, is discussed. Business is seen to be retraining students in logical thinking, the principles of cause and effect, human communication, reading, and writing--all traditional liberal arts objectives. (MLW)

Students in the best universities do not believe in anything, and those universities are doing nothing about it. The great questions--God, freedom, and immortality--hardly touch the young. The universities have no vision, no view of what a human being must know in order to be considered educated. (MLW)

The current baccalaureate trend toward professsionalization is lamented because it responds to the superficial and ultimately meaningless accouterments of professional life. The mission of developing broadly applicable intellectual capabilities must be maintained. (MLW)

Four new books typify the constructive search for ways to improve the quality of undergraduate education. "Achieving Educational Excellence" (Alexander Astin), "Careerism and Intellectualism" (Herant A. Katchadorian et al.), "Increasing Student Retention" (Lee Noel et al.), and "Success in College" (Warren Willingham) are analyzed. (MLW)

Youthful idealism like that found among college students is seen as an important part of the developmental process and also as an opportunity for college teachers to learn about how today's students view the world and to explore the connection between intellect and experience. (MSE)

Criticism of church-related colleges as ignoring or fighting the academic revolution is seen as too severe. Suggestions are made for closing the gap between the academic revolution and traditional institutional religious identity: intellectual pursuits must be affirmed, intellectual pluralism sought, theory critiqued, and the role as a valuing…

Faculty fellowships, designed to foster individual achievement, are in trouble as doubts emerge about individual efficacy in a global environment that requires teamwork and collaboration. They have become politicized, divided by conflicts over criteria. If they are to be renewed, the dominance of research over teaching and service must be…

Reed College, a small, liberal arts college with high academic distinction, is described. Faculty participate in virtually all policy decisions and are hired and promoted according to the quality of their teaching. Its finances are improved, but it is still underfinanced and too heavily dependent on tuition income. (MLW)