A category of the Carnegie classifications, the term “comprehensive”
was created to describe small to mid-sized colleges and universities that
offer baccalaureate degrees in the liberal arts and professional fields and
master’s and first professional degrees, but not doctorates. In his landmark
1990 essay, “The Ugly Duckling of Higher Education,” University
of Redlands Provost Frank Wong explored the identity and distinctive
characteristics of comprehensive colleges and universities. He posited
that they were neither liberal arts colleges nor research universities and
therefore not understood or receiving of the respect due them. Yet he
saw them possessing positive features of each of the two established
institutional types. Wong argued that the central identity of these
comprehensive institutions lay in their integrative potential, especially
through integrating liberal and professional studies to enhance student
learning. Wong’s provocative thinking caused a group of chief academic
officers from private colleges and universities to create a study group to
explore the distinctive characteristics of their institutions.
Ernest L. Boyer dubbed Wong’s Ugly Duckling “that sturdy
American hybrid” because it possessed the combined strengths of
prestigious liberal arts colleges of English origin, the German research
university, and the American land grant university. Indeed, Boyer, called
for a “New American College” that would restore the tradition of higher
education service to scholarship and society that he associated with these
classic 19th century models of post-secondary education. Later, Alexander
Astin contributed the notion of “talent development” to the emerging
concept of the New American College, arguing that institutional
excellence should be measured by its educational outcomes, not by its
resources alone. A conference on the New American College was held at
Wingspread, ever the catalyst for collaborative advances in the quality
of education, in 1994 which gave birth to the Associated New American
Colleges. In 2009, the Board of Directors voted to change the name to The New American Colleges and Universities to reflect the fact that most members were universities. In addition to the University of Redlands and Valparaiso
University, the founding group of members included current
members Hamline University, North Central College, Mercer University,
Ithaca College, Quinnipiac University, and Susquehanna University.
New American Colleges and Universities seek to model a higher education
learning community where the ethos is collegial and student and
value-centered. They combine a strong commitment to teaching in a
highly personalized liberal arts residential environment with the diverse
programs and opportunities of a large research university. Faculty and
professional staff share a flexible professional vision that links scholarship,
teaching, and service in fulfilling the missions of their institutions.
As a consequence of their inclusive character and manageable size, members create an effective blending of classroom and community, coordinating
theoretical and experiential learning through undergraduate and
graduate research, professional practice and internships, and community
economic and social development projects in the local region around
campus where members have historic ties and relationships. These hybrid
characteristics have led some members to describe themselves as “collegiate universities,” where the ideals of Phi Beta Kappa and professional
accreditation combine to generate a superior preparation for lives
of personal meaning and career achievement.
The New American Colleges and Universities' participation in higher education’s central discourse in
recent years is reflected in a variety of ideas that have contributed to the
organization’s distinctive intellectual heritage. Before his death in 1995, Wong drew an analogy to the health care industry in decrying the hazards of
the “disconnected specialization” among university faculty. He characterized
the faculty ideal as that of the “primary care professor”
who focused holistically on student learning. His notion was what Boyer
once called “linking thought and action.” Boyer’s successor president
at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Lee S.
Shulman, coined the term “professing the liberal arts” to underscore the
two-way nature of contributions of liberal arts and professional programs
to each other. Perhaps underscoring the long-standing ties between
The New American Colleges and Universities and the Association of American Colleges and Universities,
president Carol Geary Schneider called for “practical liberal learning”
in the AACU 2003 Greater Expectations national report. A similar
message was found in Carnegie’s Scholarship Reconsidered which urged
the integration of scholarship and teaching and the National Association
of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) call, in Learning
Reconsidered, for collaboration between academic and student affairs.
Both views influenced and mirrored The New American Colleges and Universities' thoughts.
In its focus on what might be called the “integrative institution,”
The New American Colleges and Universities has conducted two major projects with national foundation funding.
The ANAC Faculty Work Project, supported by the Pew Charitable
Trusts, originated in 1997 when the organization collaborated with the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching on a national survey of faculty.
This project developed a blueprint for enhancing faculty-institutional
relationships in order to better accomplish the institutional mission. The
survey led to a book, A New Academic Compact: Revisioning the Relationship
between Faculty and Their Institutions (Anker Press, 2002). Currently
and with funding from TIAA-CREF Institute, the faculty work project
is analyzing the generation turnover of the faculty, as late-career faculty
plan for retirement and hiring is underway for the faculty of the future.
The TIAA-CREF grant underwrote a 2003 national survey of late-career
faculty and a survey of early-career faculty is planned for the fall of 2005.
The second project, with support from the William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation, featured infusion of liberal and professional theory and
practice in major programs in both fields. The New American Colleges and Universities partnered with AACU
in sponsoring a 2002 national conference that borrowed from both projects
in seeking to align faculty professional development and institutional
priorities in support of integrative student learning.
Other programs and activities also reflect the integrative
paradigm. Member presidents; chief academic, financial, and student
affairs officers; deans; and program directors meet once or twice each year
in roundtable discussions to share new ideas, common problems, and best
practices. Since 1997, members have contributed more than 250
data sets annually to The New American Colleges and Universities Data Exchange, a member benchmarking
tool in such areas as enrollment, student performance, salaries, finances,
technology, and programs. In 2002, ANAC created ANAC Academy as
a national faculty/staff professional development program. The Academy
sponsors professional development workshops and a several-day annual
summer institute for institutional teams of faculty, administrators, and
other professional staff who also use the institute as a strategic opportunity
to work collaboratively on an institutional priority. In 2003, ANAC
established ANACSA (ANAC Study Abroad) as a consortium to provide
member students with program opportunities in all parts of the world at
a favorable cost to students and their institutions.
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