Author: Constance C. Relihan
Way back in the fall of 2020 I published a piece on Medium, “Ten Ways to Promote Culture Change on a University Campus.” I had originally drafted it in 2019, before the pandemic. In the ...
When Harry Potter’s Aunt Petunia recalls the arrival of her sister’s Hogwarts letter, she remembers her parents’ response and her own reaction: “‘We have a witch in the family. Isn’t it wonderful?’ I was the ...
The recently released report of the Boyer 2030 Commission, The Equity/Excellence Imperative: A 2030 Blueprint for Undergraduate Education at U.S. Research Universities, explains that it is organized around what the Commission has termed the “equity/excellence ...
This fall, for the first time in a long time, I am teaching a class taken only by first-semester, first-year students. A required general education course that includes a lot of writing. And grading. I ...
Given enrollment pressures, devaluation of the importance of general education, and efforts to cut costs, general education courses—especially those students are expected to complete during their first year, such as English composition, first-year seminars, and ...
The start of the academic year is nearly upon us. On our campuses, student orientations are in full swing, new faculty orientations are being planned, and faculty are planning their syllabi. Some might argue that ...
For a number of reasons, including the publication of Rescuing Socrates, participating in a wonderful seminar on general education sponsored by the Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities, and ongoing general education revision at ...
Roosevelt Montás’s Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation (2021) is both a defense of the Columbia University general education program and a memoir recounting ...
Many universities, especially larger public ones, have organized their academic structures so that there is a dedicated division that focuses on aspects of undergraduate academic success that span disciplines and majors. These units may contain ...
Like many academics, I recently watched Netflix’s The Chair, and like a lot of those academics—especially those from a humanities background—much of it seemed quite painfully realistic. The mess that Sandra Oh’s character, Professor Ji-Yoon ...
