about campus is provided to all members of theamericancollegepersonnel association

8/13/2019 ABOUT CAMPUS IS PROVIDED TO ALL MEMBERS OF THEAMERICANCOLLEGEPERSONNEL ASSOCIATION

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Editorial Correspondence:Addressall correspondence to PatriciaKing, Professor, Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, School of EducationBuilding, 610 East University Avenue, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1259; e-mail: [email protected]. Subscription Information andPrice: About Campus(ISSN 1086-4822) is published bimonthly by Jossey-Bass. The annual U.S. subscription rate is$53 for individuals and $95 for institutions.Canadian subscriptionsare $53 for individuals and $155 for instititions. Canadian customers, please add appropriate GST sales tax (GST 89102-8052). Individualsubscriptions in Mexico are $53. Subscriptions for all other countries are $89 for individuals and $206 for institutions. Members of the American College PersonnelAssociation (ACPA) will receiveAbout Campuswithoutasubscription.Ordering Information: Contact Jossey-BassInc., 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco, CA94104-1342. Fax 1.800.605.2665 or call 1.800.956.7739. Allow six weeksfor delivery of first copy. Payment can be charged to VISA, MasterCard, American Express,or Discover; supply account number, expiration date, and signature. Foreign subscriptions must be paid in U.S. currency drawn on aU.S. bank. For more infor-mation:About Campusisajoint publication of ACPA and Jossey-Bass. Please see the inside back cover of thismagazine for more information about us. Permissionto Copy: No part of thisissue may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from PermissionsDepartment, John Wiley & Sons, 605 Third Avenue,New York, NY 10158-0012. Copyright 2001 by American College Personnel Association and Jossey-BassInc. All rightsreserved. Indexing: About Campusisindexed by Higher Education Abstractsand by Current Index to Journals in Education (ER IC). Postmaster:Send addresschangesto About Campus, Jossey-Bass,350 Sansome Street, SanFrancisco, CA 94104-1342. Manufactured in the United States of America on acid-free, recycled paper containing a minimum of 50percent recovered waste paper, of which at least 10 percent ispostconsumer waste.

F R O M T H E E D I T O R

Amirror.Glass with lenses in three different col-ors.An ancient musical instrument from a sec-ondhand store.An empty picture frame. Apencil sharpener.A golf ball.Three pipe clean-

ers.A ring.Pictures.The poem Good Intentions.A gift

from a former difficult student.This is a sample of the objects my students brought toclass on the last day of the term.One held a mirror to thestudent development theories we had studied,reflecting onher own development.Another (the one with the pencilsharpener) believed her thinking and writing skills hadbeen sharpened during the term.Another played a tune onhis Chilean flute,noting that, just as when he worked withstudents,he had learned to do so without instructions.Allhad willingly complied with my request to bring an arti-fact of their learning in this class.Eachwhether as a stu-dent, as an educator, as a colleague,or as a friendhadtaken the time to reflect on his or her learning and had

found an object that was personally meaningful. As ateacher,moments like these warm my heart.

Although this exercise was designed to help bring clo-sure to a graduate class, I wonder if it might be useful toother readers as well.What would youselect as an artifactof what youve learned in the last few months? How wouldyou explain this choice to your colleagues,friends,or fam-ily members? Is there another artifact that you wishreflected your learning? Regardless of how public yourewilling to be in your response to these questions (andwhether this would warm the heart of your supervisor), Ihope you accept this story in the spirit in which it isoffered:as an excuse to help those who go about the busi-

ness of teaching to reflect on their own learning.

PATRICIA M. KIN GEXECUTIVEEDITOR

EXECUTIVE EDITORPatricia M. King

Professor, Center for the Study of Higher andPostsecondary Education, University of Michigan

SENIOR EDITORJon C. Dalton

Director, Center for the Study of Values in College StudentDevelopment, Department of Educational Leadership

Florida State University

BOARD OF CONTRIBUTORSMarcia Baxter Magolda

Professor, Educational Leadership, Miami University

Tony ChambersProgram Officer, Fetzer Institute

Russell EdgertonDirector, Pew Forum on Undergraduate Learning

Hector GarzaPresident, National Council for Community and

Education Partnerships

George D. KuhProfessor, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

Indiana University

Margaret A. MillerPresident Emerita

American Association for Higher Education

Terry OBanion

President Emeritus and Senior League FellowLeague for Innovation in the Community College

Parker J. PalmerWriter and Traveling Teacher

Laura I. RendnVeffie Milstead Jones Endowed Chair

California State UniversityLong Beach

Charles C. SchroederVice Chancellor for Student AffairsUniversity of MissouriColumbia

Vincent TintoChair, Higher Education Program, Syracuse University

Reginald WilsonSenior Scholar Emeritus, American Council on Education

DEPARTMENT EDITORSCampus Commons, Lee Burdette Williams

Director of Educational Programs, Division of Student

Development, Appalachian State UniversityThe Electronic Campus,John T. Harwood

Director, Educational Technology Services, Center forAcademic Computing, The Pennsylvania State University

In Practice, Cynthia Smith ForrestDean of Student Services, Framingham State College

What They re Reading, Susan R. KomivesAssociate Professor, Counseling and Personnel Services

University of MarylandCollege Park

Special Features,Jodi H. LevineAssistant Vice Provost for University Studies

Temple University

Managing EditorPaula Stacey

Design DirectorPaula Goldstein

Production EditorAbby Azrael

DesignNancy Campana Design

Cover art Sarah Hollander/Stock Illustration Source

A B O U T CA M P U S I S P R O V I D E D T O A L L M E M B E R SO F T H E A M E R I C A N C O L L E G E P E R S O N N E L A S S O C I A T I O N
http://www.elearnica.com/http://www.elearnica.com/http://www.elearnica.com/http://www.elearnica.com/


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TDEPARTMENTS

JANUARYFEBRUARY 2001/VOL. 5, NO. 6

2 / WHAT OUR RITUALS TELL US ABOUT COMMUNITY ONCAMPUS: A LOOK AT THE CAMPUS TOURby Peter M. Magolda

The author takes an in-depth look at Miami Universitys campus tour, inviting us to evaluate thepurposes and consequences of campus rituals.

9 / DEVELOPING THE DEMOCRATIC ARTSby Richard Guarasci

The author argues that a well-rounded education in the democratic arts will help studentsdevelop their powers of expression, reflection, and collaborationskills that are essential if our

students are to become engaged citizens.

16 / WHY BECOME A LEARNING ORGANIZATION?by Jann E. Freed

Can the learning organization paradigm that is working for many businesses work in highereducation? Yes, says the author, who suggests that, like learning organizations,our colleges and

universities should be able to adapt to change and take risks.

22 / IN PRACTICETHE GRADUATION PLEDGE ALLIANCE

by K atharine Nicholson I ngsWhen students take the Graduation Pledge, they commit to becoming socially and environmentallyresponsible employees.Many are learning that a social conscience is more important than a paycheck.

24 / THE ELECTRONIC CAMPUSCAMPUSES AT THE DIGITAL DIVIDEby Daniel W. Salter

Institutions committed to diversity and multiculturalism need to remember that studentsexposure to technology differs widely according to their class,gender,age,and race.

How can we bridge this gap?

27 / CAMPUS COMMONSGO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

by Lee Burdette Wil liamsWhile leading students in a community service project, the author gets a lesson in moving

beyond her comfort zone.

31 / BOTTOM LINEA SENSE OF BELONGING

by Johnetta Cross Brazzell

What can we learn from nontraditional institutions about how to best serve our students?Here are some thoughts about how community fosters academic success.


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2

ABOUT CAMPUS / JANUARYFEBRUARY 2001

fWHAT OUR RITUALS

TELL US ABOUTCOMMUNIT Y ON CAMPUS

A Look at the Campus Tour

BY PE T E R M . MA G O L D A

Is the campus tour merely a public relations tool, or is it an opportunity to show

prospective students the complex nature of our campus communities? All campus ri tuals

convey important messages; are those messages in line with reality?

Good morning! My name is Mark, and I ll be yourguide this morning. Im a sophomore marketingmajor from Medina.Anyone from Medina? [Noone raises a hand.] Oh well . Lets get started.

FEW TIMES each week, en route to myoffice,I notice an unmistakable ritual ofhigher educationthe campus tour.A stu-dent dressed in casual but neat attire walks

backward while pointing to buildings.Prospective stu-dents and their parents stay close to one another,carefulnot to get mixed up with campus pedestrians who are

also following the tour route.For one hour,this inter-generational cohort divides its time between listeningto the guides remarks and absorbing visible campusartifacts.

Jacquetta Hill Burnett, inEducational Patterns andCultural Configuration, and Peter McLaren,inSchooling asa Ritual Performance, argue that rituals occurring in edu-

cational contexts are seldom scrutinized.This is especiallytrue as it relates to the campus tour.The tour is morethan an instrumental task of transporting guests aroundcampus and conveying technical information. It is oneof many formal rituals that transmit the institutionspolitical, social,environmental, and cultural expectationsand norms for prospective members.

Until recently,despite my scholarly interest in cam-pus rituals,I seldom thought about the tour as an impor-tant transmitter of culture. Conversations withadmissions office colleagues have revealed a similarmindset. Institutional values embedded in the tour seem

so obvious,natural,and rightthat coordinators seldomreflect on the intended messages; instead, they tweaktechnical tasks such as recruiting competent guides.

As a result of this revelation, I recently took thecampus tour several times. I also interviewed tour orga-nizers and participants to better understand the messagesbeing communicated on those tours with respect to

A


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becoming a contributing member of the academiccommunity. I summarized my findings in a recent arti-cle in Anthropology and Education Quarterly, in which Iuse my analysis of this undertaking to clarify the con-cept of community in higher educationan overusedand seldom-understood concept that is embedded inthe tour.Specifically, I explore to what ends this inge-nious,skillful production serves as a vehicle for creatingand sustaining community.

Miami University was established in 1809 by an actof the Ohio Legislature.The first building was built in1818;classes began in 1824.At that time Miami had onepresident (who taught classes), two professors, andtwenty students.Today we have more than 16,000 stu-dents,and the president still teaches classes.

On a technical level the tour,which I have excerptedthroughout this article,is flawless.And tour scenes resem-ble Hollywoods quintessential representations of a col-lege campus.The quaint college town,with cobblestone

streets and acres of Georgian,red-brick buildings,servesas the perfect backdrop for students engrossed in conver-sation as they lounge on manicured lawns.

The guide recites the carefully crafted script,enthu-siastically and seamlessly interconnecting history, tradi-tions, and demographic information. Attendees arereminded that the university is bigger and better,whileremaining true to its founders core values (such asteaching).The tour is a tour de forcea public relationsmasterpiece,giving the people what they want.

This is Bishop Hall. I t is named after RobertHamil ton Bishop, Miamis first president. Next

you see the Honors Program and the Center forBlack Culture and Learning. Beyond that is theCommunications Bui lding, housing one of themore popular majors.This [pointing to thewalkway] is called Slant Walk because it slantstoward uptown.

Yet aspects of the tour perplex me, especially therepeated efforts to invoke a sense of community.Theguide showcases many communities, such as the cam-pus and the surrounding uptown district;both are acces-sible to new students.Singling out the CommunicationsBuilding reminds prospective students of the existence

of a multitude of academic enclaves, at least one ofwhich they will someday join.References to the Hon-

ors Program and the Center for Black Culture andLearning offices remind students of the array of cocur-ricular communities that await them.

But throughout the tour I ponder two questions:What doescommunitymean? and What roles are studentsencouraged to play in this community?

BUILDINGCOMMUNITY

THE OXFOR D CAMPUS of Miami is one cam-pus of four; the Hamilton and Middletown com-muter campuses are nearby.We also have a Luxembourgcampus,which is in Europe.

Robert Young,in a recent issue of About C ampus,argues that rituals reflect basic human needs anddesires (p.11).Formal campus rituals like the campustour respond to a basic human need to be part of alarger and distinct social entity (community).

Kenneth Heller identifies three conceptualizations

of the term community:(1) locality (that is,territorial orgeographic notion of community such as a neighbor-hood);(2) relational (that is,qualities of human interac-tion and social ties);and (3) collective political power(that is,the act of organizing for social action).The cam-pus map that each participant receives clearly delineatesthe physical boundaries of the Oxford campus.Uniformarchitecture and unique buildings,such as laboratories,convey that the campus is distinct and separate from theother Miami campuses and off-campus settings.Thehuman scale of the campus and the expansive greenspaces symbolically communicate that this setting ismore similar to a village community than a sprawling,impersonal metropolis.The physical attributes of thecampus highlighted throughout the tour supportHellers community as localityconceptualization.

The student faculty ratio is 17:1; about 80 percentof the first-year classes have fifty or fewer studentsin them, and 70 percent of first-year students aretaught by faculty, not graduate assistants.

The tour content also supports Hellers second concep-tualization of community that focuses on human rela-tions.Prospective students and their parents smile andnod with approval when the guide recites the impres-

sive faculty-to-student ratio and the small class sizes.Again,the human scale of the setting is portrayed moreas a friendly,extended family than an impersonal acad-emic enterprise.

Human relationships are also at the epicenter of theuniversitys conceptualization of community.Alumnifrom all fifty states donated the stones in front of these

3


Peter M . Magoldais associate professor in Miami UniversitysDepartment of Educational Leadership.He teaches inquiry andeducational anthropology in the College Student Personnelprogram.He can be reached at [email protected].


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benches.We have more than 100,000 actively involvedalumni. Our Alumni Association is the fourth oldest inthe nation.

The tour guide frequently infers ideas like localeand human relations,but Hellers third conceptualizationof community as a collective political power is left outalmost entirely.Occasionally, the guide offers glimpsesof sanitized politics in action, such as when he tells thestory about alumni and alumnae uniting to purchase thestone monument.Yet images or commentary showcas-ing the grist and struggles commonly associated withsocial action were less common.For example,the guidemade no mention of alumni and alumnae resistancewhen the university was contemplating changing themascot name from R edskinsto Redhawks.

Bertrand Russell argues that almost all educationhas a political motive (p. 148), an observation thatapplies to the education of tour participants.The domi-nant tour images of the tranquil setting,coupled with thecordial exchanges between students and faculty,are accu-rate and appropriate recruiting images.Yet they do notfully represent the spectrum of experiences that studentswould be likely to encounter during their collegecareers.At best this ingenious,skillful production offers

an accurate,positive,sanitized,and narrow glimpse of ahigher education community engaged in political action.What ends do these seemingly apolitical and neu-

tral conceptualizations serve? By emphasizing the local-ity and relational conceptualizations of community,withminimal emphasis on the sociopolitical-action concep-tualization, the context is set for the possibility of whatCarlson refers to as a normalizing community.

NORMALIZINGSTUDENTS

This is the Miami Seal, the Hub. It readsProdesse quam conspici, which means to

accomplish rather than be conspicuous. Thefounding trustees interpretation of the symbolicbooks, telescope, and globe was that literature,science, and world knowledge be taught tosurmount ignorance and superstiti on.Traditi on hasit that students who mock these ideas by steppingon the seal en route to an exam wi ll flunk it.

Dennis Carlson notes that the dominant conceptualiza-tion of community in the United States is that of a nor-malizing community,which is based on those in powerdefining a cultural center or norm and situating theothers on the margins.Normalizing communitiesfavor certain individuals,activities, roles,and relation-ships by portraying them as normal.The tour is repletewith symbols that not only convey idealized commu-nity norms such as the quest for knowledge but conveyroles that apparently normal students play in main-taining this community.

Normalized communities are sustained by selectivetraditions that ratify and make legitimate the dominantculture.For example,midway through the tour,Mark,the tour guide,revealed that on weekends many studentsand their dates frequent the uptown area to socialize.Embedded in this innocuous and factually correct state-ment are values,beliefs,and practices that normalmeaning traditional-age, heterosexual, unmarried,interested-in-dating,enrolled-full-time,and prone-to-consuming-alcoholstudents embrace.These assump-tions apply to many but not all undergraduates.How dostudents who do not fit this profile interpret the com-ment? Although I would draw no definitive conclusions

about the culture or the guides intended message basedon this single anecdotal statement,over time the cumu-lative effect of such statements is to send unambiguousmessages to prospective students.

Carlson argues that three divergent discoursesabout community(1) communities of interests,(2) communities that seek to recapture a romanticizedlost American community,and (3) communities thatengage difference and diversityhave emerged torespond to these powerful and inevitable normalizingexpectations. During the campus tour, the first twodiscourses were evident;the third was virtually absent.

The first discourse is evident in the following tour

commentary:

There are over three hundred studentorganizations.They include cultural, athletic,social, community service, special interest, andreligious organizations.They are a great way tomeet people with common interests.

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The tour is one of many formal rituals that transmit theinstitutions political, social, environmental, and culturalexpectations and norms for prospective members.


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The guides description of student organizations pre-sented a separate but equalmessage;it conveys to stu-dents that there is a community of interest for everyindividual.Within larger social entities,such as collegecampuses,where it is difficult to achieve a single,uni-fied community,Carlson argues that communities ofinterest (such as the three hundred student organiza-tions) emerge.Often,marginalized groups form com-munities of support or resistance for the sole purpose ofresisting normalization;such groups provide members avoice and an identity.There are merits to these groupformations,but independent groupings make it difficultto engage in dialogue about the larger public interest orabout issues relevant to the entire campus across com-munities of interest.The guides discourse on studentsfinding a particular community of interest overshad-owed any language evoking the public interest.

The tour guide engaged the second discoursetheromantic notion of recapturing the lost American com-

munitywhich was exemplified in the following twopassages:

When M iami opened the doors to K ing Library,transferring the books from Alumni to K ing was ahassle, so President Shriver offered students andfaculty a day off i f they lined up between buildingsand passed the books person-to-person. And thatswhat happened.

Upham Hall is named after Al fred Upham.Among other things, he wrote the Alma Mater.Tradit ion has it that sweethearts who kiss under

the [Upham] arch at midnight whi le the light ison will eventually marry.We call them MiamiMergers.The [national] average percentage ofstudents marrying students is 3 percent; atM iami University it i s 11 percent. The AlumniOffice sends Valentine cards each year to thesemergers.

A quaint college town,an accessible college president,students,faculty,and administrators working for a com-mon cause,along with heart-warming legends aboutcourtship,conjure up images of campus life reminiscentof years gone by.Sandwiched between these nostalgicimages are a few best of the 1990simages,such as aClub Med-like recreation center and a state-of-the-art,computerized library. In total, these visuals evoke aromanticized image of the lost American college cam-pus (which probably never existed)a place where pro-fessors teach and mentor, students learn and enjoy life,staff administer,and graduates cherish their collegiateexperiences.

In Carlsons second community discourse,homo-geneous masses respect authority,and everyone is con-tent with his or her role in the community.An intendedoutcome of this discourse is to keep the other in itsplace. In unsettling times this hypernormalizing con-struction of community is appealing.The tour guide fre-

quently embraces this discourse. For example, if youenroll,you are expected to respect and reproduce cen-tury-old traditions because history and traditions aresacred.These messages convey which students will fit inand which will not.

Carlsons third discourse, which focuses on dif-ference,diversity,and democratic multicultural ideals,provides space for communities of interest to formand prosper,while a common, public culture is con-stantly constructed and reconstructed through dia-logue across and about difference. This dialogueembraces a democratic and progressive agenda,maxi-mizes public participation, provides room for diver-

gent perspectives, stands for something in the way ofmoral or ethical vision for the reconstruction ofcommunity, ruptures the borders that separate indi-viduals into separate camps or neat categories, andhelps young people build alliances and see the inter-connectedness between different areas of identity for-mation and cultural struggle.

5


A quaint college town, an accessible college president,

students, faculty, and administrators working for acommon cause, along with heart-warming legendsabout courtship, conjure up images of campus life

reminiscent of years gone by.


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During the tour,this last discourse was not as pro-nounced as the other two.The tour script encouragesmaximum public participation in the multitude of cam-pus enclaves accessible to students.Normal studentsare encouraged to create communities of interest andembrace the romanticized notions of the past.Absentare messages that convey to prospective students ways tonegotiate and embrace difference and diversity. If aninstitutional goal is for students to create communities

that embrace these ideals, it is imperative to weave thisdiscourse into the fabric of the rituals that introduceprospective members to the community.For example,references to tensions among communities of interest orthe value of a multicultural campus would introduce thisthird discourse into the tour ritual.

THISBRIEF ANALYSIS reveals how the contentof a particular campus tour conveys dominant cul-tural norms,values,and beliefs leading to a particularconceptualization of community.The tour illuminatesthe power of rituals in shaping the experiences of par-ticipants.Although these interpretations are most rele-

vant to a particular university, I use my analysis to invitea broader audience of scholar-practitioners interested incommunity, ritual, and enacting multicultural, demo-cratic ideals to generate their own analyses. I concludewith some of my own interpretations;I invite readers todo the same.

Reexamine and Recognize the Power of Ritu-als. Like conscientious car owners who periodicallyhave a mechanic inspect their well-maintained vehicles,ritual coordinators would be advised to periodicallyinspect their rituals,especially those that participants andorganizers receive well.Revisiting the philosophicalaspects of the campus tour would shed light on theinstitutions political, social,and cultural expectations andnorms.

Ritual audits would reveal whether intended out-comes are achieved and whether gaps between espousedvalues (for example,recruit a more diverse group of stu-

dents) and enacted values (for example,nontraditional-age students are less welcome than traditional-age stu-dents) exist.Revisiting the tour would provide a venuefor coordinators to contemplate important ideologicalquestions such as these:

Whose interests are being favored, andwhose are being ignored?

Who is at the cultural center, and who ison the margins? To what ends do andshould these rituals serve? (For example,should the tour give the people what theywant or provide information that attendeesare entitled to know but might notembrace?)

Reexamine and Recognize Higher EducationsUnquenchableThirst for Community. A populartelevision game show raises an interesting question:Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?Based on the thou-sands who apply to become contestants each week,theanswer is Many people.

An identical response would result if university fac-ulty, students,or administrators were asked a similarquestion:Who wants to be a community member inhigher education?As the tour analysis suggests,com-munity is on the minds of tour organizers and partici-pants.Hellers framework suggests that these multipleconceptualizations are rooted in geography,human rela-tions,or political action.The campus ethos,as well asinternal and external influences,defines and redefinesthese concepts.Currently,my university relies heavilyon geography and human relations to define its notionof community.I predict the universitys expanded use ofthe World Wide Web (for example,through virtual toursand distance education seminars) will no longer neces-sitate that students set foot on the campus,much lessinteract face to face with faculty,staff,or peers and thusbeing considered a community member.These changeswill not likely squelch ones thirst for community; theywill only alter the flavor of the tour experience.

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Like conscientious car owners who periodically have a

mechanic inspect their well-maintained vehicles, ritualcoordinators would be advised to periodically inspecttheir rituals, especially those that participants andorganizers receive well.


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A more interesting and important question is,What kind of millionaire or higher education com-munity member do you aspire to be? Hellers thirdconceptualization of communitypolitical-socialactionseems particularly relevant, especially in theseglobal and virtual times.Education is a quintessentialexample of social action, and teaching and learning arepolitical acts aimed at transformation.As the tour analy-

sis suggests,talking about the importance of social actionis easier than modeling it.The guide encourages studentsto take risks (for example, to study abroad)a form ofsocial action.

Ironically, tour architects do not heed their ownadvice;instead,they adopt a neutral and apolitical pos-ture.Engaging in discussions that reveal the kinds ofcommunities we desire to create and the kinds of com-munity members we aspire to be is necessary.A cam-pus tour de force aimed at orienting prospectivestudents to higher education cannot exclude politicsand social action.

Reexamine and Recognize Higher EducationsQuest to Portray the Ideal Community. My firstimpression of the campus tour is similar to the one Iform of an individual who dons a lightly starched,whiteshirt. I am simultaneously wowed by the neat and pris-tine look and skeptical about whether the unsullied shirtwill survive a hard day of work.

Likewise, I had a favorable first impression of thecampus tour; simply stated, it wowed me, even as Idoubted that this unsullied campus representation couldbe sustained over a long period of time. Marketinggurus endorse the clich that first impressions (of a uni-versity) are lasting.I concur.Accentuating the positive

is expected. It would be senseless for guides to air theuniversitys dirty laundry,so to speak.Yet bleaching thevibrant colors and textures that define a university isequally foolhardy.

Conventional wisdom suggests that presenting anidealized version of the campus that is neat, conserva-tive,neutral, and apolitical would yield the largest pool

of candidates,which is a desired outcome. I disagree.Intermixing discussions about,for example,alcohol con-sumption and campus folklore would not stain mostattendeespositive initial impression; I posit that thecandor would enhance it.A laundry detergent box clar-ifies for consumers the merits of the product andincludes cautions.Heeding this advice,tour organizerswould be advised to remind participants that the campus

is an imperfect environment where complex issues arise,are discussed,and addressed.The tour is not an appro-priate venue to initiate in-depth discussions about thegood, the bad,and the ugly. But showcasing accom-plishments and coming clean about complicated issuesthat warrant community memberssocial action is aviable conceptualization of an ideal community.

Recognize and Reexamine Assumptions AboutStudents and the Role They Should Play inCommunity. In these challenging times,students longfor simplicity and congruence.Carlson refers to this dis-course as communities that seek to recapture a roman-

ticized lost American community. This discourseuniquely and narrowly defines students roles.This dis-course values consensus,consistency, loyalty, and har-mony. It teaches students to assimilate existing culturalnorms,which does little to prepare students to challengethe status quo,manage conflict, negotiate differences,and accept ambiguities and unsolvable problems as waysof life.

Efforts to create and maintain smaller studentenclaves are commonplace,even on small college cam-puses.On the tour of my mid-size campus, the size ofgroups is capped at fifteen,with the hope that rapportbetween the guide and the visitors will result. The

guide mentions many academic communities of inter-est, such as physics and theme residence halls where on-campus students can reside with peers who sharecommon interests.The guide implies that students whoimmerse themselves in communities of interest areempowered to express their views,even if they are notthe dominant views.

Intermixing discussions about, for example, alcoholconsumption and campus folklore would not stain

most attendees positive initial impression; I posit that

the candor would enhance it.


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Enclave members in fact devote time and energy toreaching within-group consensus (for example,how aparticular fraternity will initiate new pledges) and main-taining subculture boundaries.These roles are appropri-ate and educational, but limited. They representseemingly apolitical aspects of community inherent inboth Hellers conceptualizations of locality and rela-tionships and Carlsons communities of interest orromanticized communities.There is a need to createpermeable boundaries among subcultures.EmbracingCarlsons third discourse and Hellers conceptualizationof community as a collective political power accom-plishes this aim.

These two perspectives focus on politics,difference,diversity,and democratic multicultural ideals;they alsoencourage students to consider a multiplicity of per-spectives.This alters studentsrolesbecoming activistsfor the public good,scholars of multiple perspectives,and alliance builders in imperfect systems.These roles

are aligned with A.Bartlett Giamettis belief that Theuniversity must be a tributary to a larger society,not asanctuary from it (p.89). Reexamining assumptionsabout students and the roles they play in the commu-nity and transmitting these assumptions and roles toprospective students will be a meaningful experience.

IHAVE TRIED to refrain from the stereotypicaland sometimes warranted characterization of acad-emicians as perpetual critics and cynics, devotingenergies exclusively to pointing out what is wrongwith other academicians. I hope I have accomplished

this. I do not offer a prescriptive set of campus tourdos and donts, nor do I provide a top-ten list ofstrategies to create community. My hope is that thiscampus tour analysis will provoke readers to reexam-ine rituals (focusing on the means and ends), revisitfoundational beliefs that guide institutional and indi-vidual quests for community, and reveal assumptionsabout students roles in an academic community. Ifthese aims were discussed,a foundation for a tour deforce education would be in place.

NOTES

Burnett,J.H.Ceremony,Rites,and Economy in the StudentSystem of an American High School. In J. L. Robertsand S.K.Akinsaya (eds.), Educational Patterns and CulturalConfigurations: The Anthropology of Education. New York:McKay,1976.

Carlson, D. Gayness, Multicultural Education, and

Community.Educational Foundations, 1994,8(4),525.Giametti,A. B.Quotable.Time,Oct.2,1978.Heller, K.The Return to Community. American Journal of

Community Psychology, 1989,17(1),115.Magolda, P. M.The Campus Tour Ritual: Exploring Com-

munity Discourses in Higher Education. Anthropologyand Education Quarterly, 2000,31(1),2436.

McLaren,P.Schooling as a Ri tual Performance:Towards a Politi calEconomy of Educational Symbols and Gestures. (2nd ed.)London:Routledge,1993.

Russell, B.Principles of Social Reconstruction. London: G.Allen& Unwin,1916.

Young, R. B. Reexamining Our Rituals. About Campus,1999,4(4),1016.

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THE POPULAR WISDOM tells us that American civic life and the

American community are in sharp decline.From these social crit-

ics,the implications for the vitality of American democracy are dire.

Volunteerism,club membership,community organizations,activist

groups,traditional religious groupings,and just the simple,informal

interpersonal connections of community social life all sum to

important components of American civic life.And we know fromAlexis deTocquevillesDemocracy in Americaup to Robert Bellah

and colleaguesHabits of the Heart that a rich and participatory cul-

ture supports a vibrant democracy.The decline in civic participation

forecasts a drop in reciprocity among citizens that forms critical

bonds within a democratic community,particularly one seemingly

unable to cope with its own celebrated diversity.

B Y R I C H A R D G U A R A S C I

In a society that doesnt always live up to its ideals,

how can we encourage students to live publicly

involved, culturally aware lives? The answer, says the

author, is to offer students an extensive education in

the democratic arts.

DEVELOPINGthe

DEMOCRATIC

ARTS


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One such commentator is Harvards Robert Put-nam,author of Bowling Alone:The Collapse and Revival ofAmerican Community. The title reflects his fear thatalthough the number of individuals who bowl hasincreased,the number of bowling leagues has droppeddramatically over the last few generations.He uses themetaphor to illustrate the upsurge in private life and thesearch for individual gratification at the cost of aban-doning public life and social bonds.

Putnam carefully documents the more than thirty-year decline in the conventional measures of formal

political participation, such as voting in elections,belonging to a political party,and participating in localpolitics.As an illustration,only 13 percent of those eli-gible voted in New York Citys mayoral election in theearly 1980s. In parallel fashion, civic life is in jeopardy,with declining participation rates in religious affiliationsand overall religious practice, despite the growth inevangelical religions.Putnam is clear in his documenta-tion of the historic importance of traditional religiousaffiliations for the depth and scope of civic volunteerismthroughout American history.

In addition to declining membership rateswithinreligious organizations,union and professional associa-

tion affiliations are also in decline.Union membershiphas fallen from a high of 35 percent in the mid-1950sto under 14 percent today.With job tenure rates downand temporary and part-time employment rising,otherforms of workplace social bonds appear to be in atro-phy,according to Putnam.

Putnam even documents a number of surveys thatillustrate a declining rate of participation in dinner par-ties,entertaining at home,groups playing cards,and,ofcourse, joining bowling leagues.Local pubs are replacedwith fast food enterprises;even sports participation isdown in spite of the isolated growth in youth soccer.And finally,Putnam asserts that the rate of volunteerism

is down by 30 percent in the last twenty years,with adramatic fall-off in the numbers of thirty- to fifty-year-olds volunteering.

Although Putnam provides adequate evidence todocument his thesis,I would argue that there is anotherreality emerging in the United States, in particular onour high school and college campuses. Never men-tioned in Bowling A loneis any hint of the dramaticgrowth of undergraduate and high school student par-ticipation in community service and community-basedlearning.When one adds a number of other forms of

civic and campus participation across the Americancampus landscape,we begin to realize that within ourculture of individualism,many students are experienc-ing a renewal of democratic sensibilities.I will argue thatthis engagement is equal to charting a very powerfulnew paradigm of campus worka paradigm based onteaching the democratic arts.

LEARNING THEART OFDEMOCRACY

AFEW YEARS AGO I was teaching a group ofmostly senior undergraduates in a rural liberal artscollege.I experienced one of those rare moments when

a students personal transformation dignified the entirecourse project.

We were engaged in a community-based learningcourse in political science.The topic was democracy,community,and public service.We read many texts onAmerican diversity,and we confronted the vexing issuesof pluralism and multiculturalism.As part of the course,several students elected to work with a residential drugtreatment program for women and their children,wheremost of the residents were required to stay betweenthree months to one year.Almost all of them had pre-viously lived in New York City.

One of my students assigned to this site was a very

accomplished,somewhat outspoken young woman froma white,upper-middle-class family.Materially comfort-able and socially skilled, this student was an articulatefeminist,well on her way to any number of postgradu-ate opportunities.She brought a combination of intel-lectual aggressiveness and personal confidence to eachclass meeting.As we engaged in a serious debate aboutthe inability of American democracy to come to grips

10


My student was developing the arts of democracyvoice, critical judgment, empathy, reciprocity,commitment, and action.

Ri chard Guarasci is provost of Wagner College in StatenIsland, New York, and coauthor, with Grant Cornwell, ofDemocratic Education in an Age of Difference: RedefiningCit izenship in Higher Education. Many of the ideas in this arti-cle were first presented in his keynote address at the generalmeetings of the Society for Values in Higher Education,August 1999.He can be reached at [email protected].


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with the seemingly intractable issues of racism andinequality, this student found it quite easy to positionherself on the side of the marginalized voices in thecourse readings.She resonated to the words of Freder-ick Douglas,Cornel West,and Audre Lord.

IN SOME SENSE this young womans game wasintellectual and abstract.She only had to side with the

better arguments in these debates.As do many talentedstudents,she learned to critically assess anything placedbefore her.Then something remarkable occurred.As sheworked through a number of rather messy evenings ofher public service at the center,my young student begana journey of self-reflection that opened up a new,deeperlevel of understanding about the tragic consequences ofAmerican democracys failure to fulfill its commitmentto racial and gender equality.

In a final assignmenta citizenship autobiogra-physhe attempted to integrate the course readings

and discussions with her thirty hours at the center.Shecompared her life with that of one of the young resi-dent mothers from New York City.They were roughlythe same age but from different sides of the race-classborders of contemporary American society.

We are a year apart and somehow she seemedso much older than me. She was burdenedwith responsibilities I could never dream ofhaving.She was born into very unfortunatecircumstances that made her life much moredifficult and frustrating than most people couldever tolerate.I felt so spoiled,so unaware that

lives like hers are endured daily,I felt sorry forthe childhood she never had and deserved.Ithought of the accident that occurred about 22years ago when she was born into her life andI into mine. It seemed so unfair and cruel. Ithought a lot about God that night. [Guarasciand Mapstone,pp.6162]

Within the community-based learning course,my stu-dents experience opened her to a level of understand-ing and commitment unavailable to her in her previousundergraduate career.She learned the material in adeeper way than before because she joined ideas and

action into a powerful learning experience.What my young student taught me was that she was

beginning her education in the democratic arts.She wasassembling all the partsa deep understanding of Amer-ican history and its pluralist ideals,the specific histories ofethnic and racial groups in the United States,and finally,some lived intercultural moments when ideas and expe-rience become intertwined,allowing a far deeper reflec-

tion and generating sustainable commitments.My stu-dent was developing the arts of democracyvoice,criti-cal judgment, empathy, reciprocity, commitment, andaction.

How do we make her type of learning experiencethe indelible one in American higher education? Whyis it imperative for higher education to take on thisresponsibility at this time?

LEARNINGDEMOCRATICCITIZENSHIP

SADLY, colleges are one of the last institutions whereAmericans can experience intercultural life. In asociety based on the ideals of democratic pluralism butlimited by its failure to realize them,the absence of anysustained and meaningful, as well as inclusive, socialexperience within the other public domains places adramatic responsibility on American higher education.It requires us to teach for and about intercultural, plu-

ralist democratic citizenship.To fulfill this responsibility,American colleges haveattempted to expand access,but we need to increase ourcurricular substance and provide an experiential base forcivic education.

All of this speaks to the best ideals of Americaneducation: to educate all who seek higher learning;toprovide them with the critical skills necessary for inde-pendent thinking;to open students to the variety ofhuman experiences;and to help them learn that democ-racy requires reciprocity and responsibility as much as itneeds personal freedom and individual choice.

But how far we need to travel.Our campuses are

seemingly flooded with the learned habits of a newlyresegregated America.Students arrive on campus fearingencounters with the stranger;many students are in deepdenial about the contours of inequality.Worse,they havebeen denied any real sense of idealism;hence they believethat injustices and differences are likely immutable.

Like immigrants to a new land who dont speakthe language with ease and who remain ignorant of thecultural cues and folkways, students find comfort inrecreating the culture from which they came as quicklyas possible.A visit to the campus dining hall is likely toprovide visual proof of social self-segregation, howevermuch they may be affirming intragroup learning and

identity formation.All of this is to say that the task of higher educa-

tion is complicated but not impossible.Success will notbe realized simply by addressing the curriculum,although that remains a necessary but not-quite-sufficient ingredient.Clearly,democratic education willnot succeed by simply adding diversity to the demo-graphic composition of the student population,

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although that remains a critical component.And cer-tainly the most enterprising cocurricular diversity edu-cation programs and service learning programs will not,by themselves,provide a complete democratic education.

None of these efforts will suffice on their own.Allof themand morewill be necessary to provide stu-dents with a complete education that prepares them tolive lives in which freedom,responsibility,and complexitycollide before them everyday.Without a vision of inter-cultural democracy and,concurrently,an effective peda-gogy of democratic learning,the attempts by colleges anduniversities to address their democratic missions willappear to students,their parents,and the general public asideological, arbitrary,and incoherent. It is necessary todevelop an integrated approach to the entire fabric ofcampus learning and teachingone that embraces criti-cal collaborations between faculty members and studentaffairs staff.In the absence of a comprehensive effort,thelarger project of intercultural democratic education

becomes even more problematic.Without academic andstudent affairs collaboration,constituencies fail to buildon those important learning opportunities where ideasand experiences can be juxtaposed at transformativemoments.Worse,failure to integrate these realms main-tains a remnant of anti-intellectualism,where academiclearning is perceived as a means to a credential instead ofa guide to understanding ones autobiography in the con-text of a democratic society.

THEDEMOCRATICPROJECT

WHAT TYPE of higher education do we need

now? And how will it help our students engagein a reflective practice of the democratic arts? How dowe engage our students in the fundamental work ofdiversity education while also involving them in con-structing an inclusive and respectful community?

I would argue that much of the curricular andcocurricular activity on our campus sums to a largereducational project.More specifically,students are learn-ing the arts of democracy when they engage in learningcommunities,community-based learning,intercultural

and diversity education, interdisciplinary studies,and res-identially based living and learningprograms. In thecocurriculum, the work in diversity education,AIDS-health education,and public service all add dramaticallyto the student experience.When we view them cumu-latively,the outline of anew democratic experienceis appar-ent.Each piece promotes the objectives of pluralist ormulticentric democracy.

Learning Communities.Joining students into a clus-ter of courses taught by a team of faculty members fos-ters student skills in identifying and negotiatingdifferences.As a result,they form new connections basedon deeper learning.At LaGuardia Community Collegein New York City,the learning communities led facultymembers to appreciate these emerging democratic sen-sibilities. In research on learning communities,RobertaMathews and Dan Lynch interviewed a number ofteachers who had been involved in this work.Here is

one teachers observation.

Early on, the class was fragmented,people offon their own. Now they are moving to acommon understanding of what is acceptableand what is not,of what we can tolerate fromindividuals and what people wont toleratefrom others.Theres a sense of tolerancearound hearing different things and thebehavioral issues are resolving themselves.People are coming together and workingthrough difficult issues where we all may havedifferent perspectives.Something really good

is happening.. . . Ive had perfect attendancefor the last three sessions,which meet in ablock of three and one half hours each week.

Thats a long class. [p.130]

Community-Based Learning. When students areable to connect ideas and experience into a reflectivepractice,we are teaching democratically.Joining studentsto a larger community accomplishes this objective.When students actively engage in community problems,

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A visit to the campus dining hall is likely to providevisual proof of social self-segregation, however muchstudents may be affirming intragroup learning andidentity formation.


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they learn that public involvement may have an impact

on the lives of others in need.They first gain a sense ofempathy for others and later a needed sense of accom-plishment in implementing meaningful change in thepublic realm. If nurtured correctly,community-basedlearning allows for a greater mutual respect among stu-dents and community residents.

Second,community-based learning teaches studentsthat there is a public that can be engaged and shaped,that their involvement can have a positive impact, thatcivic participation is part of social action. In an age ofheightened cynicism,restoring a sense of practical ide-alism is critical for building a democratic sensibility

among young people.Recently,one of my students captured these pointsin his citizenship autobiography:

Experience in service learning is essential inthe education process toward becominglearned citizens.A vital part of our education,service teaches individuals how to worktogether for a common goal.Whether thatgoal is simply painting a fence,working withhospital patients, or feeding the hungry, itcauses all involved persons to put aside theirdifferences,and act as true citizens participat-

ing in their community.Service coerces per-sons to take a look at their community andbecome involved in the changes that happenthere.Farland and Henry mention,isolationfrom the larger world is the principle obstacleto education for public life. It is this involve-ment in service that creates pride and a senseof responsibility in ones community.For it iswhen members of the community takeresponsibility for their environment that theytruly become citizens.They have the charac-ter traitshonor, pride and responsibility,amongothersthat define them as true citi-

zens of society.[Guarasci and Cornwell,p.48]

Diversity Education. Although uneven in its delivery,many colleges have comprehensive cocurricular programson campus pluralism.These programs traverse studentaffairs,student activities,orientation programs,freshman101 seminars, and a variety of campus events. Manyschools go further and deeper,embedding diversity learn-

ing into a meta-cocurriculum involving student clubs,

leadership training,and student government agendas.Beyond this, almost all undergraduate curricula

require some coursework on American and interna-tional diversity.Some of this is mechanical and superfi-cial, but many colleges and universities are makingsubstantive encounters into multiculturalism.The Uni-versity of Michigans Intergroup Relations Program is aprime example.Students enroll in courses that exploredeeply the interplay of stereotypes and their negativeeffects.The program maintains both curricular andcocurricular options.

David Schoem,director of the Michigan program,

recently wrote about the impact on Ann Arbor students.This is how one student evaluated her experience:

As a result of my participation in this pro-gram,I feel much more comfortable dealingwith conflict and much more willing andcapable of confronting my friends when theymake racist comments [student participant].

[The training course] taught me to valuedifferent ways of thinking and different waysof interacting.Ive especially been thinkingabout different cultural styles of interactingand how clear that was in the Black-White

dialogue;how the White people were work-ing on one set of rules and the Black peopleseemed to be working under a different set ofconversation rules .. . just became really fasci-nating to me.And I really learned .. .how tosee all of those as good and valuable in and ofthemselves;whats really bad is when one styleor cultural way of interacting is set up as thenorm that everyone else has to follow.[p.131]

Interdisciplinary Studies and General Educa-tion. In many ways interdisciplinary core curriculumprograms began as projects in democratic education. In

The Meaning of General Education, Gary Miller illustrateshow interdisciplinary general education programs wereinitiated in the wake of World War I I as a response tothe inadequacies of both liberal education and the free-elective curriculum,which was then newly introduced.

The emphasis was on knowledge acquisition, but itproved limited in stressing social responsibility and par-ticipatory citizenship.Divided between the different

When students are able to connect ideas and experienceinto a reflective practice, we are teaching democratically.


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schools of thought,which were oriented to either JohnDeweys pragmatism or Robert Hutchinsand AlexanderMeiklejohns humanism,the practice of interdisciplinarygeneral programs provided students with learningexperiences that stressed the connectedness of knowl-edge and human beings.The larger vision of generaleducation always has been the emphasis on the humancommunity as a laudable humanist ideal charged withboth positive and treacherous possibilities.As such,inter-disciplinary general education supplies contemporarystudents with a larger idealistic vision of human possi-bilities and democratic aspirations.

Living and Learning Programs. College residencesthat are restricted to students who share common liv-ing space fashioned around shared goals (residential col-leges) have long provided important collaborativeexperiences. Joined together in common discoursearound substantive themes, residential colleges offer

undergraduates genuine experiences in democratic liv-ing where the virtues of voice,collaboration, reciproc-ity,and mediation are evident as part of everyday life.

St.Lawrence Universitys First Year Program in itsresidential colleges provides an illustration of the edu-cational opportunities available for this form of residen-tial arrangement.After a dozen years of genuine success,faculty members and student affairs staff have developeda positive approach to helping students learn how toengage differences and fortify a positive communitythrough the interplay of a common curriculum,hallgovernance systems,and joint faculty and residence hallstaff leadership.Conflicts emanating from ethnic,gen-

der,and sexual differences form the basis for problemsolving founded on mediation and tolerance;the skillsrequired for democratic learning are complimented bythe intellectual perspective provided by the commoncurriculum.

At St.Lawrence University, the freshman programhouses students by sections of a core curriculum.Facultymembers plan and integrate their courses to link theclassical and contemporary texts to the lived experiencesof students sharing a common residence.One facultyparticipant captured an example of this approach usingsocial contracts theory and residence hall governance.Recently, in Democratic Education in an Age of D ifference,

Grant Cornwell,director of the program,captured onefaculty participants evaluation of the social contrastexperiment with the freshman residence halls:

We agreed to a curriculum that includedAristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, andMarx, feminist and radical critiques of thesetheories,and at least one non-Western per-

spective on the relationship between individ-ual and community.The project was then toask students to use these theories to analyzecritically their lives together in the residencehalls.The product of these deliberations wasto be a constitution or contract,collabora-tively and democratically produced,whichwould govern their communities. [pp.99100].

Most of these attempts, however, failed to attain thelarger democratic goals of the program.They wereunable to move the students beyond procedural,demo-cratic forms and were inadequate for instigating studentresidents in engaging in the substantive issues of gender,ethnicity,class,and racial differences that framed theireveryday conflicts.Faculty began to rely on more agileforms in order for students to engage their differencesin an open and participatory style.Some of these newer

attempts involved conflict mediations,townmeetings,and counseling sessions.What did occur was a fullengagement of issues of equity,voice,empowerment,and justice as a result of the intimacy of texts andauthors linked to the lived text of campus life.Withoutthe residential colleges,these moments would not likelyoccur.Students engaged in a process of civic and polit-ical importance.When successful, the arts of democ-racymediation, negotiation, commitment, andactionbecome palpable.

ATWAGNERCOLLEGE

AS THESE FORMS of democratic education areaggregated within the undergraduate experience,

students are,in effect, engaged in a comprehensive pro-gram of the democratic arts.Students are developing thedemocratic sensibilityactive voice,collaborative skills,intercultural engagement, and reflective practice. In atime better known for cynicism and narcissism,studentsinvolved in this type of learning are likely to developdemocratic aspirations and community involvement.Gradually,these students and their faculty student affairsmentors are affirming the possibility of an Americanpluralist democracy.

At Wagner College in New York City, my col-

leagues are attempting to realize the benefits of thismodel by building a comprehensive program that joinslearning communities, community-based learning,diversity education,and multidisciplinary studies arounda pedagogy of learning by doing. By founding thecurriculum on the colleges urban location, the WagnerCollege faculty and staff designed a somewhat uniquecombination of reflective tutorials and learning com-

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munities, linking two disciplinary courses with themesand restricting enrollment to students enrolled in bothcourses.These students then enrolled in a third, relatedcoursea reflective tutorialwith further integrationaround the course themes, intensive writing andresearch,and approximately thirty hours of (very impor-tant) related fieldwork.

This past semester one of these freshmen learningcommunities combined introductory environmentalbiology and introductory economics.The same twenty-six-student cohort enrolled in each;the general themewas environmental concerns.The reflective tutorial(two sections,thirteen students each) was taught by thesame biology and economics faculty.The latter courseemphasized action research and focused on Toms River,New Jerseya cancer zone and the location of a U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfundsite. Local residents suffered disproportionately highrates of cancer and other diseases.The Wagner College

freshmen were able to deepen their learning of biologyand economics by understanding their respective rela-tionships in engaging environmental issues,particularlythose in Toms River.They interviewed cancer victimsand their families, local environmental groups, chemi-cal company corporate officials, and elected and EPAgovernmental representatives.They attended numeroustown meetings and,of course, they conducted com-munity-based research on the environmental and eco-nomic issues in Toms River.They worked with andamong that local community,applying what they werelearning in the classroom and contrasting to the real-world manifestations of environmental problems found

in Toms River.Initially these students found fault with the corpo-

rate decisions that resulted in an unregulated saturationof chemical storage and dumping in the area,but as theyinvestigated further, they encountered the economictrade-off of jobs related to the local chemical factories.Later they looked at the impact of the environmentalpollution on local real estate values and homeownersfear of further pollution revelations. In fact,the furtherthey explored the issues,the more they immersed them-selves in the community, the greater their appreciationfor complexity of environmental issues as they uncov-ered sociological, economic,political, biological, and

ethical layers to the problem. Finally, they came todeeply appreciate the need for substantive knowledge,community involvement,and justice seeking.

By the end of their first semester in college, thesestudents had spent over thirty hours engaged in thecommunity and endless hours in and out of their classes,focused on the Toms River Project.The professors areconvinced that they exceeded past classes in the depthof learning in each of the respective disciplines.Theseprofessors joined the students in all of their communitywork,and together they connected their action researchto the needs of the Toms River community.They endedthe term with a campus conference on their work,withmany Toms River community and corporate represen-tatives in attendance and with extensive coverage inlocal newspapers.

As a beginning of their undergraduate careers,itwas a full start.They learned to express themselves, todifferentiate opinions from arguments, to uncover thedepth and complexity of issues, to encounter the socialnature of knowledge making,and to connect learningto the needs of the communities around them.Finally,

they learned that democracy requires commitment andthat it is not an abstract concept but a way to live oneslife.Their democratic education is just beginning.

NOTES

Dewey, J. Democracy and Education. New York: Free Press,1916.

Guarasci,R., and Cornwell, G.Democratic Education in an Ageof D ifference. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass,1997.

Guarasci,R.,and Mapstone,D.Intercultural Citizenship andDemocratic Sensibility. In J. L. DeVitis,R.W. Johns,andD. Simpson (eds.), To Serve and Learn: The Spirit ofCommunity in L iberal Education. New York: Peter Lang,1998.

Hutchins, R. The Higher Learning in America. New Haven,Conn.: Yale University Press,1936.

Mathews, R., and Lynch, D. Learning Communities:Collaborative Approaches to Engaging Differences. InR. Guarasci and G. Cornwell,Democratic Education in anAge of D ifference. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass,1997.

Meiklejohn,A. The Experimental College. New York: HarperCollins,1932.

Miller, G.E.The Meaning of General Education:The Emergenceof a Curriculum Paradigm. New York: Teachers CollegePress,1988.

Putnam,R.Bowling Alone:The Collapse and Revival of AmericanCommunity.New York: Simon & Schuster,2000.

Tatum, B. Why Are All the Black K ids Sitting Together in theCafeteria?New York: Basic Books,1997.

Schoem, D. Intergroup Relations, Conflict, and Com-munity. In R. Guarasci and G. Cornwell, DemocraticEducation in an Age of D ifference. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,1997.


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IN QUALIT Y PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES

in Higher Education Insti tutions: D ifferent Questions forDifferent T imes,Marie Klugman and I examine how

the principles and practices of continuous improvementand organizational learning were or were not workingin higher education institutions.Although the hallmarkof higher education is learning,and as a result collegesand universities are natural learning organizations,wediscovered that this simply isnt the case.A lot of learn-ing may go on in higher education,but,as Ted March-ese points out in TQM: A Time for Ideas, anorganization full of learners doesnt add up to a learn-ing organization (p.12).

There are many obstacles to colleges and universi-

ties undergoing the kind of organizational transforma-tion described, for example, by Peter Senge in hisseminal work,The Fi fth D iscipli ne:The Art and Practiceof the Learning Organization, not the least of which isskepticism among faculty, staff, and administratorsabout the value of doing so.Many wonder how a par-adigm that was embraced by commercial organizationsas a strategy for staying competitive can be applied in

a noncommercial environment in which the mission

goes way beyond serving a customer and staying prof-itable.Indeed,although most people in higher educa-tion might see the value of staying competitive,mostwould agree that it cant be at the expense of the centralmission to build knowledge in a variety of fields (not

just the popular ones) and improve learning for all stu-dents (not just those who might be, in various ways,the best customers).

I would argue that even though these concerns areunderstandable,they grow more out of a lack of under-standing about what it really means to be a learningorganization than out of an informed evaluation of whatthe principles of learning organizations have to offer.In

fact, what Marie Klugman and I discovered in ourresearch was that,rather than undermine the mission ofhigher education,principles of organizational quality andlearning can greatly enhance the ability of colleges anduniversities to fulfill their missions.To explore just whatthese principles have to offer higher education, it is firstnecessary to examine what learning organizations actu-ally look like.

B Y J A N N E . F R E E D

Many corporations have discovered that continuous learning is the key to

staying competitive. Can knowing when and how to embrace change also

help higher education institutions to thrive?

Why Become a

learningORGANIZATION?


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WHAT ALEARNINGORGANIZATIONLOOKSLIKE

FIRST, lets step into the commercial world for amoment and explore what distinguishes exceptionalcompanies that are dedicated to learning from others.

James Collins and Jerry Porras of Stanford Universityexamined eighteen companies that were premier institu-tions in their industries;they were widely admired and

averaged being in business almost one hundred years;theyhad outperformed the general stock market by a factorof 15 since 1926.The results were published in theirbook,Bui lt to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.

They discovered several timeless qualities of theexceptional companies:

They have core values.The core values formsolid foundations that do not changebecause of current fads.

They are dri ven by more than making money.Although making money is one objective,it is not the primary objective.

They focus on conti nuous improvement.Thecompanies focus on continually improvingthemselves rather than on beating the com-petition.

They learn from failures.They rely more ontrial and error than on systematic strategicplanning.

The companies that are committed to continuousimprovement and organizational learning have core val-ues.They dont simply write a mission statement and

hang it on the walls;they articulate their values and thenuse these values as guiding principles to shape dailyactions.They stand for something besides makingmoney and making a profit.

They also create a forgiving environment thatencourages innovation and learning and allows for fail-ure.The importance of creating this kind of environ-ment is reinforced by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton

in their bookThe Knowing-D oing Gap: How Smart Com-panies Turn Knowledge into Action.They explain how it isessential that people be encouraged to try things,evenif they might fail.They warn organizations to be care-ful about emphasizing accountability because if peopleare held accountable for every mistake, they will takefewer risks.They emphasize improving processes andsystems that are not working rather than blaming peo-ple for mistakes. Indeed, in a recent issue of Fortune,

companies like Intel,Microsoft,Cisco Systems,Enron,Charles Schwab,and Royal Dutch/Shell are describedas admirable because they have created successful mod-els for inspiring innovation and creativity, as well asattracting and retaining knowledge workers.They havecreated workplaces in which collaboration is encour-aged, quality of thinking and power of vision isrespected more than positions and titles,and low-riskexperimentation is supported.

The learning that takes place in learning organi-zations happens on every level and involves constantscrutiny of not only what a company is doing but howand why. In Building a Learning Organization,an

article in The Harvard Business Review, David Garvindefines a learning organization as one skilled at cre-ating,acquiring,and transferring knowledge, and atmodifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge andinsights (p.80).What this describes is an ongoingfeedback loop in which new learning takes placeabout every aspect of the organization and then isapplied to make necessary changes.Clearly, this meansthat not only does an organization have to give itspeople time and resources to learn about what theydowhether it be in the form of training,engagingin critical reflection, or gathering and consideringdatabut it must be flexible enough to allow for

change.This may sound simple on the surface,but inreality it involves nothing less than a complete changein organizational culture.Clearly, this is not an easycharge for any organization, but it is especially difficult

We found that rather than undermine the mission ofhigher education, principles of organizational quality

and learning can greatly enhance the ability of

colleges and universities to fulfill their missions.

Jann E. Freedis professor of business management atCentral College in Pella, Iowa. She can be reached [email protected].


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for institutions such ascolleges and universities,wheretradition is highly valued.

HIGHEREDUCATIONINSTITUTIONS ARENOTNECESSARILYLEARNING

ORGANIZATIONS

ACCORDING TO William Hull in his chapter ofQuali ty Quest in the Academic Process, we live in aworld with too many schools and too few students,toomany fixed costs and too few discretionary dollars,toomany competitors and too few supporters (p.227).Hebelieves that institutional survival will be confined tothose institutions with a passion for quality that extendsto every member of the community, faculty included(p.227).Still, many factors in colleges and universitiesmitigate against their developing the commitment tocontinuous learning and experimentation that character-izes learning organizations.Part of the problem is thatmany faculty,staff,and administrators dont see themselvesas integral parts of their organizations.They have learnedthrough years of practice to work in isolation as inde-

pendent contractors.The very nature of tenure supportsthis tendency and limits change.Once people are grantedtenure, they are more likely to act independently ratherthan interdependently and are usually less mobile.Fur-thermore,the old model continues to reward knowledgethat is discipline-specific rather than knowledge that ben-efits the whole organization such as knowledge on howto improve processes,meetings,or collaboration acrossdisciplines.

We say that we care about learning,yet we focusour efforts on independent teaching and research.Although research says that the lecture method isnotthemost effective way to engage students in the learning

process, it is still the major mode of teaching.Parker Palmer refers to one aspect of the culture of

higher education as the privatization of teaching(p.6)in his article,Good Talk About Good Teaching. Hedescribes the pain of disconnectionamong faculty andthe isolation that people feel even though we talk aboutbeing in a community of scholars.The point here is thatin a learning organization, in addition to pursuing learn-

ing in a specialtywhether it be an academic field or atechnical skillmembers of the organization value andlearn skills that help them work together to improve theway the organization works as a whole. In a college oruniversity this might mean learning about everythingfrom the latest approaches to pedagogy to how toengage in teamwork.

In a learning organization, people learn how toadvance organizational learning through challengingassumptions and current patterns of behaviors.People

anticipate change, learn to think systemically, andimprove processes.They work together to make processimprovements that benefit institutional stakeholders (forexample,students,administrators,faculty,and staff). Forexample,the registration process for students or the eval-uation process for faculty and staff might be streamlinedso that everyones time can be used more effectively.Steps that add no value are taken out of the process.Theresult is improved stakeholder satisfaction because theinstitution has become more efficient and less bureau-cratic.This involvement in making improvements alsoenhances communication across the institution.

Historical practices in terms of traditions and ritu-

als are important in creating memories that connectpeople to an institution.Yet historical processes and sys-tems left unexamined are not necessarily the best wayto get work done and to satisfy all stakeholders.Oneexample is the learning cycle.Do all courses need to bea semester or a quarter in length? What number of cred-its should be required for graduation? To their credit,some institutions are beginning to ask such questionsand challenge these kinds of deeply rooted assumptions,but they are few and far between.

In a learning organization people look for new andbetter ways of doing things.Learning becomes a newway of being andseeing. People who engage in this kind

of learning describe it as an awakeningbecause theyperceive the organization and their place in it differently.People have a new awareness and deeper understandingof systems and interdependence.They question assump-tions that may have appeared obvious in the past.Seek-ing out better ways to do things becomes contagiousand nonthreatening once the institution creates a learn-ing environment.

The learning that takes place in learning organizationshappens on every level and involves constant scrutiny ofnot only what a company is doing but how and why.


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WHAT ALEARNINGORGANIZATIONLOOKSLIKE INHIGHEREDUCATION:

A CASESTUDY

WHAT WOULD this look like at a college anduniversity? In our research we looked closely atten institutions implementing quality principles that wehad identified through a national survey as good casesto examine.At each institution,we interviewed mem-bers of the faculty,administration, and staff about theirexperiences in creating an environment that supportscontinuous improvement and organizational learning.

One excellent example is Belmont University inNashville,Tennessee (www.belmont.com).Belmont hasworked hard to institutionalize learning. In fact, I con-ducted a follow-up study on William Troutt, the presi-dent from 19821999,because I was so impressed withhis effectiveness in leading the culture change.Since1989,members at Belmont have been learning how to

do their work differently.After interviewing a variety of key members to

gain a cross-functional perspective, it became clear thatchanging how people think, feel, and act has been along and arduous process.Yet we also discovered thatpeople at Belmont reflect the timeless qualities ofexceptional organizations.

Belmont has institutionalized learning and changedthe campus climate in five primary ways, through:(1) leadership,(2) training and development,(3) data-driven decision making,(4) process improvement,and(5) collaboration and involvement.

Leadership.Troutt led by example.He talked about lead-ership,wrote about it, read about it, and practiced it.Hespent a summer sabbatical shadowing some of the mostrecognized leaders of continuous improvement in busi-ness and industrycompanies such as Herman Miller,Harley Davidson,and Ritz Carlton.Accordingto Trouttin an interview for Quality Principles and Practices, thiswas a time to examine organizations from which Ithought I could learn something about changing cul-tures.Another example of his commitment to learningand to supporting the learning of others is The PeerLearning Networkan organization that brings togetherCEOs of noncompeting organizations so they can learnfrom each other.The goals include sharing best practices,providing opportunities to partner,and pooling resourcesto bring nationally recognized speakers to Nashville.

Training and Development. Under Troutts leader-ship,other leaders were developed using their trainingand development center.Members were taught how tofacilitate meetings,how to use process improvement

tools,and how to function in a team.Book groups werestarted so that people could develop a common under-standing and speak the same language about the newlydesired behaviors.Members have learned to pilot testprograms, collect data,and make decisions based onfeedback. People in the training center are not part ofthe operating budget,but their financial support comesfrom training people in organizations throughout theNashville community.This allows them to developmembers of Belmont at little cost to the university.

Data-Driven Decision Making. There are numer-ous examples of how Belmont systematically collects dataand uses them to drive decisions across campus. In fact,several members indicated that meetings are much moreproductive and efficient because people come with data.For example,students must complete a satisfaction sur-vey before registeringevery semester.Some of the ques-tions are standard;others change,depending on the issues

on which the college wants feedback. I was told thatTroutt read every survey in order to know the majorissues of the campus from the perspective of students.

In addition, Belmont systematically collects datafrom alumni, current students,and corporationsbothprofit and not-for-profit at which graduates mightworkand uses this information to make improve-ments.The college surveys graduates three years out ofcollege,as well as their employers,to find out what pro-grammatic changes should take place so that graduatesor future employees increasingly add more value.If insti-tutions do not have these feedback systems in place,it iseasy to do the same old,same old.

Process Improvement. Belmont Centralis the result oftheir student services streamlining team.This is one ofthe first examples of the one-stop office where studentscan request transcripts,complete financial aid forms,cashchecks,and manage several administrative tasks.In thestudent surveys,students complained that routine taskssuch as adding a class or filling out a financial aid formtook too long. Students were tired of getting therunaround from administrative services.A team of admin-istrators and business office employees held brainstorm-ing sessions,visited other institutions,conducted studentfocus groups, and implemented the recommended

process and structural changes.Belmont Central, launchedin 1995,won the team the Rochester Institute of Tech-nology/USA TODAY Quality Cup for education.

Collaboration and Involvement. Pulling togetheraction-oriented teams is common practice at Belmont.Again,members at all levels have been trained to workin teams and to operate team meetings.For example,an


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employee survey revealed that morale was not where theleaders wanted it to be.A cross-functional team waspulled togetherthe Lighten Up teamto implementsome events that have since turned into traditions tocreate a place where people want to work.Because thename Troutt lends itself to a fish theme, the teamcame up with the idea of presenting a traveling bronzeBig Fish award whenever they feel someone deservesrecognition for their efforts.They organized a Fish Festfor Troutts birthday that included games with fishingpoles and fish cards,fish squirt gun contests,and contestsfor making the best fish.The team instituted casual Fri-dayby using posters of Bill Troutt urging people todress down that used a theme similar to this:If I can doit,you can too.Another popular event sponsored by theLighten Up team is the July 4th Watermelon Seed Spitthat has garnered local media attention.

Kathryn Baugher,dean of enrollment services at Bel-mont,said that at the beginning of the quality journey,

people thought that using quality principles and practiceswas adding more work for them to do.Now people viewthese practices as a new way to do their work. Baugheradded,While institutions that never began the journeythink that continuous improvement is a program that hasgone away, we are doing quality work without eventhinking about it. Because learning often involveschange, people need to learn to be comfortable withchange.At Belmont,several people described their com-mitment to embrace change as having continuousimprovement in their bloodstream because they arealways looking for better ways to do things.

After interviewing members of the faculty,admin-

istration, and staff at Belmont,we concluded that theyare committed to continuously improving themselvesand their institution.They welcome change and embraceit because they are focused on developing improvedprocesses and systems.Baugher summed up her institu-tional culture by saying,We eat change for breakfast.

This transformation usually comes from a culture thatencourages personal learning and sustains organizationallearning because of its ability to adapt to change.

At Belmont,where the culture shifted to emphasizelearning,several members have become scholars in con-tinuous improvement by giving national presentations,publishing articles,and writing chapters in books because

of their knowledge and experience with looking for

better ways to accomplish their mission.Clearly,the jour-ney has not been easy,and people have left who were notcomfortable being so involved in decision making.Butthe people who remain at Belmont appear to be alignedto a strong sense of vision,mission,and values.

One aspect of being a learning organization is find-ing out what does not work. Belmont began the con-tinuous improvement journey by revising their missionstatement.With the help of a consultant, the new mis-sion statement was rolled out for faculty and staff, andfeedback was collected.People reacted so negatively tothe process that after months of work Troutt decided tostart all over.This time the process was internally drivenand facilitated by members within the institution.Thiswas the beginning of the mentality of Plan Do Checkand Act (PDCA).At Belmont they have a pilot test phi-losophy.They make changes, collect data,and decidewhat the next step should be,based on those data.Thisallows them to take risks,innovate,and not blame peo-

ple when things go wrong.

GETTINGSTARTED

IN ORDER for any organization or institution tochange,people need to change.And the change needsto start at the top,that is,with presidents,chancellors,provosts, deans, and vice presidents. Implicit in thismodel are strong leaders who create the conditions thatattract people who are open-minded and receptive tonew ideas and processes.Without these leaders,peopleare not comfortable challenging the status quo andlearning new things.

The first step for leaders is to examine their ownbehaviors critically and then change them.Troutt admit-ted he had undergone a major personal transformationfrom being a person who wanted control to one whoinvolves others by sharing responsibilities.This was rein-forced in interviews with his direct reports,among oth-ers.He continually emphasized how he reflects on hiswork and encourages others to be reflective.He createdan environment in which people could learn, and theyrealized that learning through taking risks and experi-menting was important.This president had a personalmission of creating a place where people wanted towork.When leaders like Troutt think differently,they act

and behave differently also.Having leaders who set this

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One aspect of being a learning organization isfinding out what does not work.


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positive tone for learning is critical; such leaders are rolemodels for others.

In the institutions where learning systems were partof the culture,learning appeared to take on a life of itsown: the more they learned ab

about campus is provided to all members of theamericancollegepersonnel association

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