Volume 10, Issue 4

A study of a university diversity initiative that trained faculty to create and teach interdisciplinary “diversity courses” resulted in significant student gains on a pre-/post questionnaire assessing multicultural awareness and skills, as well as increased ethnic identity development as measured using the Multi Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM). Qualitative analyses revealed that college students attending a multicultural institution with a dedicated mission of promoting diversity, perceived themselves as better prepared for entering a multicultural work place. This study demonstrates one model for stimulating faculty and students to increase discussion of diversity issues in the curriculum as they prepare for working in diverse communities.

Over the last several years, there have been a number of high-profile incidents of violence on college and university campuses. These have precipitated discussions and new initiatives on campuses and within our professional organizations intended to prevent and respond to violence.

Doing what we do best leads to high levels of engagement and productivity. Educators who capitalize on their strengths daily help students do what they do best by developing a strengthsbased approach to education. The principles of strengths-based education include measurement, individualization, networking, deliberate application, and intentional development. Through a parallel process, educators practice the principles of strengths-based education when advising and teaching while students learn to put their strengths to work in learning and social situations.

Character strengths are the foundation of optimal life-long development and thriving. Good character is not a singular thing but rather plural—a family of positive traits shown in one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This paper provides an overview of the Values in Action (VIA) project, which classifies and measures 24 widely-recognized and valued strengths. Research shows that character strengths are linked to important aspects of individual and social well-being, although different strengths predict different outcomes. This paper discusses ways to recognize and cultivate character strengths, within the context of a strengths-based approach to education and personal development. Character matters, and cultivating its components should be an important goal for all.

The current economic crisis raises many ethical questions about the moral motivations and behaviors of people caught up in the unbridled financial markets of the past decade.

We propose “The Fragmented Generation” as an appropriate moniker for America’s current generation of young adults. The authors consider how the historical and technological contexts in which these young people have come of age have contributed to the generation’s fragmented nature. Wikipedia, the open source encyclopedia, provides a metaphor for considering the characteristics of young Americans in comparison to those of previous generations.

Recent news reports of personal greed, corporate failures, and government bailouts are evidence of a nation’s moral character in peril. Wall Street has been blamed for much of the financial crisis as a consequence of the impudent business decisions that were made and moral considerations that were ignored. Business executives seemed to be looking out only for themselves, and, in doing so, they put aside moral accountability and social responsibility. What happened to the conscience of these decision-makers? It appears that the present economic meltdown is not only financial in nature, but represents also moral and ethical failures. For America to have a sustainable future, those of us working in higher education must do more to promote and support the development of ethical values in our students.

This study examined the ethical development and commitments of campus radicals, drawing from extended, semi-structured interviews with 22 ethical vegetarian students at a large public university. The results of the interviews suggest that participants in the study are ethically precocious, sustaining a range of mature, pluralistic ethical commitments while still in college. Students often feel out of place on campus as a result of these commitments; they feel misunderstood by peers, unchallenged in the classroom, and underserved by campus administration. The study, which utilized Perry’s scheme of development (1999), concludes with suggestions for faculty and administrators that might better integrate politically progressive students into the campus community.

The purpose of this study was to explore student perceptions of institutional values at a public research extensive institution. Students were asked to respond to the Character Education Values and Practices Inventory (CEVPI, Chen, 2005). In this study, input refers to student characteristics at the time of entry to the institution as in Astin’s (1993) input-environment-outcome (I-E-O) model. Environment referred to the programs, policies, faculty, peers, and educational experiences to which the students were exposed, and outcome referred to student’s values as shaped by exposure to the environment. Among undergraduates, the values, independent and ambitious were ranked the highest from a list of 43 possible choices.

A team of graduate students and a faculty member of clinical psychology interested in spiritually-sensitive psychotherapy conceived of and developed "Winding Road," which is an intervention that targets an underserved aspect of college students' lives: spiritual struggles.

The author points to the wisdom of Jimmy Carter in recognizing that thoughts lead to action and his courage in saying so.

Civic Engagement in Higher Education is a timely publication because it focuses higher education's attention once more on a topic that many of us have long thought as central to the mission of American colleges and universities.