Hampshire College, representing an innovative response to student discontent, and Amherst College, the exemplar of the liberal arts tradition, are compared. Seen from Amherst, Hampshire's curriculum is trendy, its standards lax, a remnant of California counterculture. From Hampshire, Amherst appears a bastion of cultural elitism and authoritarian…

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)

In 1977 the Hastings Center launched an extended examination of the place of ethics in American higher education. Questions studied were: extent of ethics teaching, problems introducing ethics courses, purposes of courses, faculty and student support, objections to courses, qualifications for teachers, and evaluation of ethics courses. (MLW)

Changes in undergraduate curriculum are seen to be generated by significant social, political, and cultural forces at work throughout society. After World War II a core curriculum was encouraged, but an imposition of a core curriculum in today's institutions is seen as inappropriate and ineffectual. (MLW)

The loss of balance among the functions of the research university (instruction, basic and applied research, and professional training and service) produces a crisis of values. Many of the university's problems can be traced to this disequilibrium. Without increasing the value placed on teaching, curricular reform will be ineffectual. (MSE)

This article argues that the trend in college student public service cannot be sustained unless it is linked to the faculty's teaching mission, both disciplinary and interdisciplinary. This includes institutionalization of service learning in the field of pedagogy and within specific disciplines, and the linking of service learning to other higher…

The Great Lakes Colleges Association, composed of twelve small liberal arts colleges in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, has been a leader in the integration of women's studies into the curriculum of its member schools. The consortial approach and the women's studies program are described. (MLW)

The rationale for supporting Black Studies in higher education rests on the program's ability to guide students into human experience as it has affected the lives of Blacks and to examine the variety of ways in which Blacks have responded. The author's personal reflections on White academics' misconceptions are recounted. (Author/JMF)

Ernest Boyer traced the cause of many of higher education's problems to the fragmented nature of the college experience. Boyer's concept of the New American College had three priorities, all rooted in American higher education traditions: clarifying the curriculum; connecting to the world beyond the classroom; and creating a campus community.…

Four goals for a Second Wave of general education reform should be: broaden existing reforms and embed them more firmly in the life of the college; engage a larger number of colleges; attract new individuals to the movement; and confront more candidly the barriers to devising, approving, and implementing reforms. (MLW)

An examination of trends in undergraduate liberal arts degrees and curricula reports two findings: (1) renewed interest in the liberal arts degree has occurred primarily outside liberal arts colleges, within universities; and (2) the struggle for institutional survival has caused some colleges to scale back or abandon their original missions. (MSE)

Reports on a survey of 571 college English departments which indicated that almost all use a core of works and have not abandoned traditional texts, that professors view multicultural understanding as a goal but not a primary goal of literature classes, and that such theoretical approaches as the history of ideas and New Criticism do influence…

This set of five essays explores the pros and cons of undergraduate core curricula in colleges and universities. Core curricula are seen as either providing the ideal educational base and a shared background, or as a loss of diversity and a protective shell that faculties can use to avoid considering the relevance of a liberal arts education. (JMD)

The Pacific Northwest International/Intercultural Education Consortium was formed as a means for colleges, universities, and community organizations to assist one another in bringing global perspectives to their curricula, in expanding their overseas programs, in improving their services to foreign students, and in nurturing international…

After a survey of general education reform movements of this century, it is suggested that general education should focus on experiences that knit individuals into a community. Six themes are proposed: use of symbols, membership in groups and institutions, producing and consuming, relationship with nature, sense of time, and values and beliefs.…