The Undergraduate Experience

PRAISE FOR THE UNDERGRADUATE EXPERIENCE Into the cacophony of higher education's funding woes and narrow metrics comes the harmonic music of The Undergraduate Experience to lift minds and hearts. The book, a splendid compendium of great institutional practices, reminds us that 'an extraordinary environment for learning' is created in specific contexts and cultures by purpose-driven faculty and staff who sculpt an intentional journey of high purpose for our students. Read it to remember why you work in higher education today. -GAIL O. MELLOW, president, LaGuardia Community College Replete with illustrations of promising policies and practices from many different kinds of institutions, this book is a timely, welcome reminder that it is possible to create the conditions that foster student success. Equally important, the authors set forth foundational principles to guide this important work. -GEORGE D. KUH, director, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, University of Illinois Focusing on what matters most, this highly experienced team of scholar-practitioners revitalizes our vision of the undergraduate experience and its power to transform. Both inspirational and practical, this concise volume offers thought-provoking observations and memorable examples of undergraduate education at its best. -DIANA NATALICIO, president, The University of Texas at El Paso Drawing from a generation of far-reaching change initiatives, this is a 'can-do' book. The authors both encourage and provide an aspirational vision of systemic, integrative steps any institution can take to achieve its own design for powerful and purposeful college learning. Through page after page of inspiring examples, they show us that engaged and public-spirited quality learning is an achievable goal at every kind of college, university, and community college. -CAROL GEARY SCHNEIDER, president, Association of American Colleges and Universities