Description

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A succinct and impassioned call to reimagine the small liberal arts college, by two veteran educators.

Private liberal arts colleges have struggled for decades; now, as the COVID-19 pandemic widens cracks latent in many American institutions, they are facing a possibly mortal crisis. In The Post-Pandemic Liberal Arts College: A Manifesto for Reinvention, Steven Volk and Beth Benedix call for small colleges to seize this moment and reinvent themselves. With the rise of rankings that set peer institutions against each other, tuition that outpaces income, creeping pre-professionalism, and a race to build student "customers" the splashiest new amenities, many private liberal arts colleges have strayed from their founders' missions. If they could shed the mantle of exclusivity, reduce costs, facilitate true social mobility, and collaborate with each other, the authors argue, they might both survive and again become just, equitable, accessible institutions able to offer the transformative and visionary education that is their hallmark.

Educators, students, parents, and anyone invested in the future of higher ed should read this book.

About the Author

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Steven Volk is Professor of History Emeritus at Oberlin College where he taught for 31 years. He was the founding director of Oberlin's Center for Teaching Innovation and Excellence and is Co-Director of the Great Lakes Colleges Association Consortium for Teaching and Learning. In 2011 he was named U.S. Baccalaureate Colleges Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He lives in Oberlin, Ohio.