Perspective (the ability of an educated individual to evaluate the significance of things and events in relation to other things and events) is seen as critical to undergraduate education. Perspective offers a view that should be broadening and is seen as the essence of liberal education. (MLW)

A faculty member at Amherst discusses the challenges that have shaken his "self-edifice." He says there was strain "in the scrambling, adjusting, re-doing, remodeling of the mind, and in the constant collisions with past fatuity and obliviousness." Mina Shaughnessy's "Errors and Expectations" is recommended. (MLW)

The early apprentice, his work regime, and his directive to travel are discussed. Apprentices had both a learning and a working relationship with their masters and they performed tasks that often brought them into contact with the adult world. The wanderjahre, the practice of requiring apprentices to wander, is described. (MLW)

An interview with David Riesman is presented that highlights his own education. His judgments and predictions concerning higher education and its relationship to society at large have repeatedly proven solid. (MLW)

The role of the mentor is traced in the literature of adult developmental psychology. Four primary elements of that role are: pointing the way at a developmental crossroad, offering material and/or emotional support, challenging, and letting go at the appropriate time. (MSE)

Recently, a young faculty member commented that e-mail and inexpensive long distance rates were hampering her first-year students' development by making it too easy for them to stay in touch with their parents. Similarly, Judith Shapiro, president of Barnard College, argued in her August 22, 2002, New York Times op-ed piece, "Keeping Parents Off…

Traditionally, the goals of a liberal arts education have been expressed in terms of "self-actualization,""self-realization," and other terms implying self-fulfillment. The reality is that focus on measurable "achievements" tends to put students out of touch with the functioning of their own psyches. (MLW)

Interviews with the five 1992 winners of the national Student Humanitarian Service Awards focus on motivation for public service, relationship with the community, compulsory student service requirements, student recruitment, faculty recruitment, and personal development. (DB)

Faculty fellowships, designed to foster individual achievement, are in trouble as doubts emerge about individual efficacy in a global environment that requires teamwork and collaboration. They have become politicized, divided by conflicts over criteria. If they are to be renewed, the dominance of research over teaching and service must be…