Resources

College students and graduates have fond memories of campus events such as commencement, founder's days, convocations, and baccalaureate. These events, defined as rites of passage, secular ceremonies, or cultural performances, create a special feel to a campus remembered for years to come. Borrowing from interpretive anthropology, the author spotlights the following ideas: culture is revealed and forms of life are expressed through the actions and words of community members; human communities are dynamic, complex, and ever-changing environments revealed through analysis of cultural events; and commonplace rituals and ceremonies play a central role in the cultural work of human meaning. The purpose of the book is to explore campus culture as revealed through rituals and ceremonies. (From the Publisher)

With the concept of a global village now a reality, institutions of higher learning must broaden their thinking beyond American social, cultural, and economic borders. Reforming the Higher Education Curriculum is a collection of papers that explores how a college or university can plan and implement a systemwide program for internationalizing the curriculum throughout the entire university. The contributors argue that a thorough overhaul of the higher education curriculum is necessary to turn out graduates with true international skills and perspectives. Among the strategies recommended are courses and programs that involve study abroad, intensive study of foreign languages, and opportunities to cultivate intellectual, professional, and personal associations with people from other cultures. (From the Publisher)

What does it take to get into and through graduate school? What special challenges, opportunities, and issues face an African American graduate student? The African American Student's Guide to Surviving Graduate School offers a practical roadmap to help African American students get the most out of their graduate school experience. The book covers a number of issues, including creating a program of study, financial aid, and the dissertation process. Author Alicia Isaac thoroughly covers the entire graduate process, offering case studies, anecdotes, words of wisdom from prominent African Americans, checklists, and self-assessment scales to provide a useful guide for students involved in or considering graduate study. (From the Publisher)

The remarkable development of the Catholic university in the United States has raised questions about its continued identity, its promise, and its academic constituents. Michael J. Buckley, S.J., explores these issues, especially as they have been experienced in the history and contemporary commitments of Jesuit higher education. (From the Publisher)

Journal Issue.

This rich and insightful book explores the critical process of mentoring and presents practical tools for facitlitating the experience from beginning to end. It is based on Laurent A. Daloz's popular and widely used conept that mentoring is a learning journey, in which the mentor and mentee serve as companions along the way. Now leaders, managers,teachers, and leaders form any career, professional, or educational setting can successfully navigate the learning journey by using the hand-on worksheets and exericses in this unique resource. (From the Publisher)

In Taking Learning to Task, Vella draws from current theory and practice to explore the meaning and power of learning tasks. To illustrate this unique approach, she provides seven steps to planning learning-centered courses, four types of learning tasks, a checklist of principles and practices, critical questions for instructional design, key components for evaluation, and other invaluable tools." "Taking Learning to Task is a hands-on, practical guide to designing effective learning tasks for diverse learners and diverse content. Teachers, trainers, and all types of instructors will find a wealth of advice for refining their day-to-day practice. (From the Publisher)

The preeminent authority on religion in America advances an important public dialogue on the proper role of religion in educating and forming the next generation within a pluralist society. (From the Publisher)

For the 80,000 department chairs working on campuses across the nation, this visionary yet practical book shows how to manage academic change at the department level. It provides useful ideas and strategies on handling resistance to change, transforming departments into productive learning communities, and improving educational quality for students. In twelve incisive chapters, top academic scholars, authors, and consultants address topics and trends as diverse as service learning, technologicalchange, curriculum renewal, faculty reward systems, and post-tenure review. They offer effective models to help department chairs and administrators work through the change process, including recommendations based on real-world experiences. They also integrate the latest research with examples of best practices into a readable, accessible format. Whether you are a department chair, administrator, or a faculty member aspiring to improve your department, Leading Academic Change is the expert's guide to mobilizing faculty energy towards academic success. (From the Publisher)

Hiring new tenure-track faculty and seeing them through to tenure is an onerous responsibility for department chairs, with significant departmental and institutional consequences. The Department Chair's Role in Developing New Faculty into Teachers and Scholars is designed to help chairs with the three critical stages of junior faculty socialization: 1) recruitment and hiring; 2) the first year; and 3) evaluating new faculty performance. The authors offer concrete advice and activities; make extensive use of real-life situations; and provide generic examples of letters, checklists, and orientations that can be adapted to individual contexts. This book provides the tools chairs need to adapt habit and intuition into effective management practices. The advice will help department chairs achieve the mission and objective of their own units, as well as their colleges and campuses. (From the Publisher)