ANAC Commentary

• Ithaca president Peggy Williams Acknowledges ANAC Influence
• Lee Shulman on “Pedagogies of Uncertainty”
• ANAC Presidents Comment on “New Academy”

The priorities of the new American college are clarifying the curriculum, connecting to the world beyond the classroom, and creating a campus community.

—Ernest L. Boyer

Ithaca President Peggy Williams Cites ANAC Influence

Peggy Williams

In her column in the Fall 2004 Ithaca College Quarterly, President Peggy R. Williams made reference to William M. Freeland’s article in the October Atlantic in which Freeland credits the Associated New American Colleges for our early efforts to connect liberal and professional education, what Freeland calls “the third way” (pp 141-147). Of ANAC President Williams writes, “Through our involvement with ANAC, Ithaca takes part in projects and conferences, surveys and data benchmarking, and international study programs. Faculty members and administrators have taken advantage of opportunities to meet with and learn from colleagues at like-minded institutions. ANAC also serves the wider higher education community by supporting a national dialogue on educational issues and cooperative projects, while giving members a platform for serving as laboratories for educational innovation. . . .I am proud that Ithaca College is among the leaders in this movement and hope you share that pride.”

She recalled the influence of the late Ernest L. Boyer, who had served as U.S. commissioner of education and president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching before his untimely death in 1995. In a 1994 address before the Association of American Colleges, Boyer called for a “new American college” which in President Williams’ words would meld “the historic mission and character of liberal arts colleges and land grant universities to serve the needs of a changing global society. The priorities of the new American college, as he put it, are clarifying the curriculum, connecting to the world beyond the classroom, and creating a campus community. Those principles are put into practice in many ways at Ithaca College.”

Lee S. Shulman

Lee S. Shulman, President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, delivered a provocative featured address, “Pedagogies of Uncertainty,” at the January AACU conference. What follows is a summary of his remarks, including his thesis regarding “signature pedagogies,” an intriguing notion for ANAC members seeking to differentiate themselves from other types of four-year colleges and universities.

Shulman described the evolution and characteristics of what he calls “signature pedagogies” in the professions, e.g., the case dialogue method in law, the “morning rounds group” in medicine, the studio in architecture, and the homily in the seminary. These pedagogies have essential characteristics that could be imitated in liberal education:

1. They are pervasive, routine, and habitual in order to free the mind for increasingly complex subject matter to be learned and problems to be solved (clear “rules of engagement”).
   
2. It is impossible for students to become invisible in the learning process. Students are central and feel accountable to the teacher and fellow students. (Invisibility leads to student boredom and opting out.)
   
3. Accountability is enforced through performance and interaction with fellow students, teacher, and patient or client. Accountability induces anxiety and passion, emotions that reflect student investment and have a key role in learning. The student must be well-prepared in order to manage this anxiety.
   
4. Signature pedagogies survive because they work and can be improved.

Shulman argues that knowledge and understanding are not enough. Learning must be capable of action, practice, and performance with integrity, responsibility, and a commitment to service. Because one is never sure how things will turn out in a profession, there is the additional challenge of a “pervasive uncertainty” that requires a high degree of judgment. With signature pedagogies there are consequences from the exercise of judgment, a reality that causes everyone to be a learner, whether student, teacher, or patient/client.

Shulman pointed out that signature pedagogies must adapt to changes in knowledge, work, and society. They have shortcomings, e.g., morning group takes too long, case method neglects ethics. Our challenge as liberal educators is to realize that to raise our expectations and keep our promises we must become less comfortable. The pedagogies of uncertainty in the professions are models for developing signature pedagogies of liberal learning.

John Moore

In addressing key elements of a “New Academy” at the January AACU conference, a panel of five ANAC member presidents demonstrated keen engagement with the academic life of their institutions. Each chose a particular feature of their respective campus in order to stimulate the lively discussion that followed their formal remarks. The summaries below provide a flavor of the session and a sense of central priorities at ANAC member colleges and universities.

President John Moore of Drury University made brief introductory remarks as panel moderator. He spoke of the presence of core liberal arts programs at ANAC institutions and the compatibility of liberal learning with professional programs, career preparation, and community engagement in the ANAC paradigm.

Bobby Fong

President Bobby Fong, Butler University, described the synthesis of liberal and professional education that has occurred at Butler, a phenomenon he called “enriched workforce development,” e.g., the development of “human capital.” He observed that faculty and students are closely engaged with employers to the extent that many Butler students have job offers before they graduate, a priority in a state ranked 46th in the “brain drain” of its college graduates. He noted that at Butler the collaboration between liberal arts and professional programs has resulted in professional school deans seeking to reduce professional curriculum credit requirements in order to enhance student’s general education.

Leo Lambert

President Leo Lambert discussed the faculty teacher-scholar model at Elon University. The Elon mission and the Elon Teacher Scholar Statement “blur boundaries that separate teaching, scholarship, and professional engagement.” Elon also places high priority on student-faculty research and the scholarship of civic engagement. Elon recently established the Elon Center for Teaching and Learning in its own building to focus on teacher scholar professional development and to further a scholarship distinct from the research university and appropriate to the ANAC institutional type.

Jeanne Neff

President Jeanne Neff of The Sage Colleges addressed the importance of program accountability to the interests and needs of students. Sage focuses on “student-centered academic planning” with these features:

• Preparation of a multi-year course plan linked to needs of student majors and creating an optimal fit of general education and major program courses.
• Intentional approach to planning applied liberal arts experiences for each student, e.g., community-based major program projects, internships, and service learning with theory-practice-reflection components through the four years.
• Development of programs with liberal arts-professional studies discipline intersections, e.g., computational biology, forensics science, political communications, and accelerated 3-2 and 3-3 undergraduate-graduate degree options available to every student.
• Expanded community college articulation agreements linking specific community college and Sage programs to increase diversity and reduce educational costs to students.

James Appleton

President James Appleton, University of Redlands, focused on systematic assessment of student learning as a priority that college and universities must face up to. Public demands for greater accountability and rising concerns about educational costs in the midst of the debate over the federal higher education reauthorization act leave the academy with no other choice. He applauded AACU’s support for “value-added assessment” and the visibility of the AACU LEAP initiative. Undertaking assessment is tricky because to succeed it must be imbedded in the work of the faculty members, not be imposed on them seemingly from the outside. An intentional assessment strategy will involve faculty retreats, presentation of colleague best assessment practices, faculty governance assessment policies, and administrative assistance in creating a supportive campus structure for dialogue. President Appleton feels the metaphor of the campus as “learning organization” helps to create a supportive climate for assessment.