Today¿s colleges and universities face countless uncharted challenges and possibilities. They are often prized as national treasures, yet, in tough economic times, they are becoming a major focus of contestation and controversy. This richly comprehensive survey takes a frank look at both polarities of the puzzles of academe. Presenting multiple perspectives on a wide array of crucial issues, the book features realistic representations of students, faculty, curriculum, administration, and the socio-cultural conditions that shape higher education. The incisive essays are written by practitioners on the front lines of the academy¿s battle to validate and sustain its core principles in a complex, rapidly evolving world. They afford valuable insights into the postsecondary scene for all who seek to nurture its development in these uncertain, troubled times. The text will appeal to students, faculty, administrators, student life professionals, and policymakers who shape human potential. In the end it will leave them with sobering thoughts about the present and future of higher education, an institution that still warrants their constant care and vigilance.

Joseph L. DeVitis is Visiting Professor of Educational Foundations and Higher Education at Old Dominion University. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he is a past president of the American Educational Studies Association (AESA), the Council of Learned Societies in Education, and the Society of Professors of Education. Author or editor of 14 books, he has written extensively on moral development, liberal education, and collegiate service-learning. His most recent books are a series of notable readers for Peter Lang Publishing: Critical Civic Literacy (2011); Character and Moral Education, edited with Tianlong Yu (2011); and Adolescent Education (2010), edited with Linda Irwin-DeVitis. The latter two books won Critics Choice Awards from AESA as outstanding books of the year.

Contents: Joseph L. DeVitis: Preface ¿ Jon Boeckenstedt: Outside the Gates, Looking In ¿ Heather D. Wathington: Heeding the Canary: How Higher Education Can Improve Outcomes for All Students ¿ Mitchell R. Williams: Still Trying to Be All Things to All People: What It Means for Students at Community Colleges ¿ Roger B. Ludeman/Dennis E. Gregory: Higher Education Student Affairs and Services Around the World ¿ Pietro A. Sasso: Fraternities and Sororities in the Contemporary Era: A Cause for Change ¿ Regina Rahimi/Delores D. Liston: Campus Conflicts: College Students¿ Perceptions of Heterosexism and Homophobia in Colleges and Universities ¿ Julie J. Park/Kristin Paredes-Collins: Spirituality and Religion in Higher Education: Continued Relevance in the 21st Century ¿ Aaron W. Clopton: The Impact of Athletics upon the Social Sustainability of the College Campus ¿ Dan Bauer: First-Year Composition¿s Correlation with Undergraduate Education Aspirations: Culture Building and the Work of Good Teachers to Fight Minimalism (or Mediocrity?) ¿ Robert Samuels: The New Literacy Agenda for Higher Education: Composition, Computers, and Academic Labor at U.S. Research Universities ¿ Mayra Besosa/Maria Maisto: Defining the «Faculty» and Getting It Right ¿ Marybeth A. Gasman: Researching for Justice: Using One¿s Role as Faculty Member to Fight for Equity in Higher Education ¿ William H. Schubert: Multiple Curricula in Higher Education ¿ Christopher J. Lucas: Liberal Education: The Challenge of Consumerism, Careerism, and Commodification ¿ Michael Scott Bieze/Philo A. Hutcheson: The Debate Over the College and University Curriculum: «The Artist Waits Upon Us» ¿ Eric C. Sheffield: Community Service Learning and Higher Education: The Need for a Prerequisite to Thoughtful Service ¿ Eric Margolis: The Changing Hidden Curriculum: A Personal Recollection ¿ Jay Paredes Scribner: Leading from the Middle: Embracing the Role of Department Chair ¿ Scott C. Brown/Stephen C. Leavitt: Supervision, Suicide, Strategic Planning, and Shenanigans: Life of a Small College Dean ¿ Deborah L. Floyd: The Multi-faceted Journey of a Community College President ¿ Dorothy Leland: Hermeneutical Adeptness and Presidential Leadership: Navigating the Contemporary Higher Education Landscape ¿ Jeffrey S. Pittman/Dana D. Burnett: The Privatization of Higher Education ¿ John Smyth: How Did We Get to This Situation? The Immiseration of the Modern University in a Globalizing Context ¿ Aaron Cooley: Danger U: How Conservative Attacks on Higher Education Undermine Academic Freedom, Science, and Social Progress ¿ Thomas M. Lovett: Trends in Higher Education: Legal and Ethical Issues ¿ Marybeth A. Gasman: Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Philanthropy ¿ William L. Nuckols: For-Profit Models of Higher Education: Current Issues on the Proprietary Front ¿ Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr.: Computing, Scholarship, and Learning: The Transformation of American Higher Education ¿ Maurice R. Berube/Clair T. Berube: The Transformative University Revisited.