The purpose of this essay is to offer a survey of religious studies capstones from twenty-nine U.S. colleges and universities, to identify the most common frustrations about the capstone, and to observe how departments resolve such frustrations. I conclude that the most successful capstones--in terms of students' performance and faculty…

Issue 13:3 of this journal (July 2010) included a "Conversation" on Hugh Heclo's recent publication "On Thinking Institutionally" (Paradigm Publishers, 2008) with a book review by Robert Fennell and responses by Richard Ascough, Tat-siong Benny Liew, Michael McLain, and Lynne Westfield. Here we publish two additional responses to this same book.…

Promotes idea that change is needed in supporting faculty contributions across full range of mission of higher education: (1) teaching must become community activity; (2) departments must be held accountable for contributions to mission; and (3) learned societies must participate in supporting teaching and reflective practice. (CRR)

Four prerequisites for college and university departmental change and renewal have been suggested: dedication to teamwork; collective dialog and inquiry about effective teaching; commitment to quality control and rewarding collective goals; and leadership of a purposeful chair. These are discussed in relation to conditions mitigating against…

A conceptual model for agricultural education departments posits that teaching/learning is the central mission, it encompasses more than teacher preparation (e.g., extension, agricultural communications), the various parts of the department should contribute to the mission and be interrelated, and settings in which the mission is applied are of…

Places the question of departmental excellence within "the winds of historicity and temporality" and the political demands of multiple constituencies. Concludes that the task for every department that wants to pursue excellence is to know, understand, and operate within the hidden curriculum of a campus that socializes faculty to the…

This article addresses criticisms that U.S. colleges and universities have lost their moral and civic purposes. It suggests that a major problem is the fragmentation resulting from higher education's organization into departments. A University of Pennsylvania project to revitalize an urban Philadelphia neighborhood is described as an example of…

This paper describes the experience of a non-Catholic Chair of a Communications Department during the University of Portland's (UP) on-going "return to Catholicity." The papal statement "Ex Corde Ecclesiae" on Catholic institutions and a recently completed UP strategic planning process intended to focus the university to be…

The current discipline-based organizational structure of the college curriculum in which general education is treated as an isolated learning experience should be replaced with a more integrated curriculum. In addition, general education should take different forms in institutions with different missions. Such a curriculum redesign could help…

This essay explores higher education governance and resource allocation and makes a case for a new system of governance that goes beyond the traditional belief that all fields of knowledge are always and everywhere equally valuable and the mystique of department-centered governance. In an opening section the essay argues that the decline in the…

State-endorsed education service agency (ESA) type organizations are found in 26 state school systems, 23 of which have a complete statewide network serving all local districts. These organizations promote collaboration among local school districts in substate regions or serve as a conduit for implementation of state initiatives. This report…

A critical mass strategy for university academic budgeting, resource planning, and management is described, and state government budgetary and program policy for universities is analyzed. The use of "rational systems management" in universities is discussed as a means of placing in perspective the critical mass resource decision model. Attention…