Given the political Right's attacks on U.S. academics as too liberal, we broach questions about knowledge production and curriculum development. We first explore how the Right has used arguments for freedom of speech and ideological diversity to undermine higher education's mission in the hope of polluting the public sphere with ideas that are…

This article retraces the infamous controversies between the "Edinburgh Review" and Oxford in the early 19th century. It seeks to broaden the understanding of the origins and background of John Henry Newman's idea of a university by analyzing the connections and differences on both sides of the controversies, drawing from writers such as…

Neo-liberal capitalism is a representation of values that are detrimental to intellectual inquiry. Market deregulation and consumer choice are relentless in their erosion of academic autonomy and traditions of independent scholarship. Education as a 'positional good' may be weakened more in the post-1992 higher education sector, where…

In modern and well-structured universities, ethics centers are playing a key role in hosting, organizing, and managing activities to enrich and guide students' ethical thinking and analysis. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of the goals, activities, and administration of ethics centers, as well as their role in promoting ethical thinking…

Although high-needs schools rarely provide extensive scaffolding for beginning educators, liberal arts colleges that are committed to the moral and intellectual development of teachers can serve a pivotal role in helping their candidates choose such schools and commit to serving in them for the long term. This article describes ways in which…

Presents a systematic approach to accountability and academic support on the part of institutional student affairs areas. Contends that the major mission of colleges and universities should be academic and intellectual achievement and that the true effectiveness of student affairs programs should be judged in this light. The Value-Added concept is…

Ways in which philosophical inquiry serve the Christian scholar include these: providing historical analogues, useful paradigms, principles for interpretation of occurrences, tools for systematic analysis of intellectual and social systems, rhetoric of dissent, strategies for change, and mechanisms for preservation of concepts. (Author/MSE)

"Politically correct" outlooks are to be neither wholly accepted nor wholly rejected; they are to be learned from. The self-scrutiny bred by concern about political correctness is an important part of the university tradition; and without it, colleges could not experience their current growing diversity. (MSE)

It is proposed that the postmodern university, with its emphasis on technology and its market orientation, departs from the true principals of liberal education, which is the development of intellect: the ability to think clearly and critically and to understand ourselves and others. (MSE)

Traces evolution of the medieval university's role in providing professional education. Argues that medieval universities evolved from two types of institutions--guilds and cathedral schools--into institutions that offered training in intellectual professions (theology, medicine, and law) but required prior mastery in liberal arts. The European…

Suggests that John Dewey developed ideas regarding reflective thinking and the challenges to it that are relevant to our times. Asserts that education is intended to provide a repertoire of intellectual activities for systematic and disciplined thinking that can counteract assaults on reason. (EV)

A University of Maryland program of required upper-level undergraduate courses designed to foster intellectual maturity consists of a selection of general education courses reflecting the interests of individual faculty members and using more sophisticated intellectual skills than most distribution courses. (MSE)

A study of almost a thousand graduates of 14 diverse colleges and universities investigated the extent and nature of their post-college educational and lifelong learning efforts and, based on this information, whether colleges and universities could provide appropriate and adequate educational opportunities for interested alumni. (Originally…