The future strength of the tenure system--and the survival of tenure itself--largely depends on the continuing support of faculty and the capacity of faculty to develop review processes that recognize emerging forms of scholarship. Assessments of the quality of scholarship through internal and external reviews, however, do not always reward new…

Like many other colleges and universities, Hofstra University now requires each department to create a "mission statement." Then, on the basis of this statement, a set of more specific curricular goals and objectives have to be created and, finally, a set of quantitative, behavioral criteria by which to assess the department's efforts. This new…

Assessment, it seems, is everywhere in higher education these days, as institutions develop assessment plans and accrediting bodies require evidence that students are meeting appropriate educational goals. Defining student learning as the central activity of higher education is not, in itself, controversial. Indeed, the assessment movement…

Most universities nowadays are in a middle of a crisis which involves academic freedom, faculty morale, inefficient use of time and resources, and most crucial, the nature of a liberal arts education. This crisis has emerged due to a seemingly innocuous goal: that of finding a way to "assess" how much students are learning. Assessment fails to…

In this article, the author gives suggestions on how to make campus diversity initiative work. The author suggests making sure that the following conditions apply to a campus initiative before getting involved: (1) The communications about the initiative, on and off campus, are comparable to those for a capital campaign; (2) The initiative has an…