If you followed higher education news in the 1990s, you have an opinion on Liz Coleman. The president of what was once the most expensive college in America, Coleman made a radical, controversial plan to snap the college out of a budget and mission slump -- by ending the tenure system, abolishing academic divisions and yes, firing a lot of professors. It was not a period without drama. But fifteen years on, it appears that the move has paid off. Bennington's emphasis on cross-disciplinary, hands-on learning has attracted capacity classes to the small college, and has built a vibrant environment for a new kind of learning.
Coleman's idea is that higher education is an active pursuit -- a performing art. Her vision calls for lots of one-on-one interactions between professor and student, deep engagement with primary sources, highly individual majors, and the destruction of the traditional academic department. It's a lofty goal that takes plenty of hard work to keep on course.
Selected Quotes:
What kind of a world should we be making?
What kind of a world can we be making?''
''When the impulse is to change the world, the academy is more likely to engender a learned helplessness than to create a sense of empowerment''
''No one has the answers
Everyone has the responsibility''
''History provides a laboratory in which to see
the actual as well as the intended consequences of ideas''
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