The most important book now available on residential college life is Mark B. Ryan's collection of essays A Collegiate Way of Living: Residential Colleges and a Yale Education (New Haven: Jonathan Edwards College, 2001). Harvard and Yale Universities began the modern tradition of residential colleges in the United States in the 1930s, consciously copying the earlier models of Oxford and Cambridge. Dr. Ryan's volume grew out of his many years of service as dean of Jonathan Edwards College at Yale. If you read only one book about residential colleges, this is the one to read. One thing this volume teaches is that the residential college is a portable idea, something that has been carried from place to place since its inception in thirteenth-century Europe. After his service at Yale, Ryan subsequently was instrumental in establishing the first residential college systems in Latin America. Seldom has anyone expressed so eloquently what this model of acaedemic community can contribute to the development and education of the self.

A college is, at its heart, an association or community of people having a common purpose: in the University context this common purpose is the pursuit of scholarship, at the core of the richest possible development of the whole person. The point of this book is to share experiences of college life, to identify and spread good practice, to bring together in conversation representatives from the widest possible range of colleges worldwide. Like the ground-breaking conference that preceded it, this book – the first of its kind – aims to promulgate the collegiate way of organising a university, to celebrate our colleges, however different they may be, and to learn from one another. It seeks to continue the conversations and to articulate the benefits of a collegiate way of organising a university. Establishing and maintaining colleges needs no justification to those who have experience of them – but all who work within collegiate systems are familiar with the need to be able to articulate their benefits to those outside, and to show how such benefits justify the additional cost-base of the collegiate experience. How is this best achieved? Colleges come in different forms and according to different models, be they constituent parts of a larger university or free-standing institutions. But whatever their constitution, colleges are first and foremost scholarly communities: special and distinct places where people come together as scholars within the setting of a shared community life.

"The most talked-about education book this semester." —New York Times From the author of Coming Apart, and based on a series of controversial Wall Street Journal op-eds, this landmark manifesto gives voice to what everyone knows about talent, ability, and intelligence but no one wants to admit. With four truths as his framework, Charles Murray, the bestselling coauthor of The Bell Curve, sweeps away the hypocrisy, wishful thinking, and upside-down priorities that grip America’s educational establishment. •Ability varies. Children differ in their ability to learn, but America’s educational system does its best to ignore this. •Half of the children are below average. Many children cannot learn more than rudimentary reading and math. Yet decades of policies have required schools to divert resources to unattainable goals. •Too many people are going to college. Only a fraction of students struggling to get a degree can profit from education at the college level. •America’s future depends on how we educate the academically gifted. It is time to start thinking about the kind of education needed by the young people who will run the country.

Since its inception in 1969, Change magazine has been the bellwether of higher education. It has framed the key issues confronting the academy, attracted the best minds, and shaped the debate. In this important collection, Deborah DeZure and a panel of contributing editors have selected landmark articles on teaching and learning in higher education published in Change from its launch to the present. Through the articles and incisive commentaries we follow the controversies, witness the reception of innovations, and trace the threads of continuity of the past thirty years. What emerges is both an indispensable set of perspectives and a rich resource of models and ideas.The book spans a period that began in the turmoil of student unrest in the '60s, and concludes at the close of 1999 with higher education grappling with the issues of purpose, accountability, technology and changing demographics.What is striking about these articles is the vitality and relevance of the voices from the past. They offer valuable insights and inspiration as we plan for the future, and consider how to foster effective teaching and learning environments.Organized by topic, the articles in each section are introduced by a recognized authority in the field. Deborah DeZure's Introduction and Conclusion offer both the context and an analysis of trends.Learning from Change constitutes both fascinating reading and an important compass for administrators in higher education, directors of faculty development, and deans, department chairs and faculty engaged in leadership roles in the academy. It is an invaluable introduction and survey for anyone who wants to familiarize him or herself with the issues and trends.

Presents an ambitious narrative and fresh re-assessment of common law and natural law's varied interactions in America, 1630 to 1930.