Higher Education in CSHPE: Director's Corner
News, events, and announcements
CSHPE Community News, October 7, 2005
Hello, Everyone.
It’s always a pleasure to communicate good news, and this community news update has many special announcements. Today, I share with you news of an upcoming anniversary celebration, as well as news about CSHPE Visiting Scholars, students, alums, and faculty. Read on!
CSHPE 50th Anniversary Celebration
I am very pleased and excited to share with you plans to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of CSHPE during the 2006-07 academic year. In addition to using this as an occasion for a birthday party (complete with 50 candles on a cake!) we wish to celebrate by launching a major initiative, “Understanding and Strengthening the Contributions of Higher Education to a Changing Society.”
A summary of this announcement to pique your interest, here are the opening paragraphs.
Since 1957, the mission of The Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education (CSHPE) has been to train higher education leaders to assist in democratizing and improving higher education in our country. As we approach CSHPE’s 50th anniversary in 2007, we are at another point of expansion and challenge for higher education in US society, with new demands placed on colleges and universities arising from changes inside and outside the academy. However, the environment in which higher education will attempt to meet these challenges is remarkably more complicated than it was fifty years ago and the US public has settled on a curious “love-hate” relationship with higher education, one that understands its value, but questions its structure, processes, and priorities.
At the heart of this relationship is the problematic nature of higher education’s social charter: higher education is seen as the key to realizing a diverse array of societal goals, but is criticized by those with concerns about how these goals are addressed. We need to ask what kind of key this really is, what it should be, who has the opportunity to learn to use it, and how this learning should equip graduates to effectively address the challenges of the 21st century in ways that serve broader society. This is a rich, provocative and important topic, and discussions about these questions are already having significant local, regional, and national effects.
Building on the Occasion of CSHPE’s 50th Anniversary
In CSHPE, we are uniquely positioned to undertake a major initiative on this topic. Collectively, Center faculty and alumni have excellent contacts with leaders and decision-makers who are in positions to influence these discussions at the state, professional and national levels. In particular, we are proposing to use the occasion of our 50th anniversary in 2006-07 to celebrate the Center’s history of accomplishments, but more importantly, to provide a springboard for bringing serious national attention to these important issues.
Please watch for further details and ways to be involved.
Visiting International Scholars
This fall the Center is enriched by the presence of five visiting scholars:
Visiting scholar TOMOKO TORII from the Center for the Studies of Higher Education at Nagoya University, Japan was hosted by Patricia King and CSHPE from July through October, 2005. During her stay, she is focusing her inquiry on course and program design, program coordination, delivery and assessment of liberal arts education at the University of Michigan. On October 19th, Tomoko will present a brownbag session to the CSHPE community titled “Lost in Translation - Adapting "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" to the Japanese Context.
ZHIMING GUO, who taught a course on Chinese education for UM students during an innovative educational exchange program this past summer, has returned from Tianjin Normal University, in Tianjin China, to CSHPE as a visiting scholar on September 15th and will spend time furthering her research on comparative education during her visit through January 2006.
CSHPE is also hosting two Fulbright fellows from Russia this year, VIKTORIA BOBYLEVA of Herzen State Pedagogical University, St. Petersburg and ANNA SMOLENTSEVA of Moscow State University. Both arrived in the fall. Viktoria, whose interests are focused on the role of gender in higher education management, will conduct research at the Center through July 2006, while Anna, whose visit is for the 2005 fall term and who, like Michael Bastedo, is a New Century Scholar, will spend her time researching changes in the patterns of work, productivity, and participation in university governance of the Russian academic profession since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Lastly, ALBERT WANG, of Tianjin University, China will conclude his year-long visit at the end of December, 2005. Hosted by Jan Lawrence, Albert has used his time at CSHPE to conduct comparative research on student affairs administration systems found in the U.S. and China.
The Center is pleased to host to such outstanding international scholars and will offer many more opportunities for students and faculty to interact with these visitors throughout their visits, including a brownbag session by each to present their specific research interests to the community. Watch for details.
Student Awards and Recognitions
Angela Locks was selected to participate in the ASHE Graduate Student Public Policy Seminar at the ASHE Annual Conference in Philadelphia this fall. She joins a long list of CSHPE Doctoral Students who have participated in this thoughtful (demanding!) seminar. Congratulations, Angela!
Edith Fernandez participated in the National Summer Institute at the University of Denver last summer. This 4-day institute was designed to prepare doctoral students interested in and committed to issues of diversity to assume faculty positions in higher education.
Faculty News
Michael Bastedo has been selected as one of 31 Fulbright New Century Scholars. The group of scholars from 22 countries will spend a year looking at the future of higher education worldwide. As a New Century Scholar, Michael will not only travel to meeting destinations as exotic as Paris, Cairo and Boston over the coming year, he will conduct research in the Netherlands next summer (2006), primarily in the Center for Higher Education Studies in the Universiteit Twente. His topic of research is higher education policy formation in the European Union following the Bologna Declaration. Congratulations, Michael, on this very prestigious award!
Deborah Carter is currently serving as the Program Chair for the Annual ASHE Conference, as well serving on the Executive Board of Division J of AERA.
Jan Lawrence coordinated an innovative educational program this past summer. A group of undergraduate and graduate students from Tianjin, China participated in an exchange program designed to acquaint them with education in the United States. Jan and Roger Goddard (Educational Studies) co-taught in this program. Simultaneously, a faculty member from Tianjin Normal University taught a course on Chinese education for UM students. This collaborative effort may well provide a model for a new type of inter-institutional partnership – and a great experience for the students enrolled in this program.
News from Alums
Dr. Louise August (Ph.D., 2005) is a Research Specialist at the University of Michigan’s Center for the Education of Women.
Stephen Ball (Ph.D., 2005) accepted the post of Associate Professor at Lourdes College (Sylvania, OH) in the Master of Organizational Leadership program. Stephen also had a book chapter accepted for publication in 2006, Bridging the Gap: A Model for Graduate Management Education," in Wankel, C. and DeFillippi, R. (Eds.) (2006). New Visions in Graduate Management Education, a volume in the Research in Management Education and Development series.
Dr. Timothy Cain (Ph.D., 2005) is now a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Educational Organization and Leadership Program at the University of Illinois,Urbana-Champaign.
Inspired by her previous experience with the Semester at Sea organization, Dr. Lisa Landreman (Ph.D., 2005) is spending her first postdoctoral year on the open ocean as Dean of Students for the voyage. Ahoy, Lisa! Hope you’re enjoying that salt air.
Dr. Luis Ponjuan (Ph.D., 2005) accepted the position of assistant professor in the Department of Educational Administration and Policy at the University of Florida.
Dr. Christopher Rasmussen (Ph.D. 2005)is now the new Director of Policy Research for Midwestern Higher Education Compact in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Dr. Zhengxu Wang, (Ph.D, 2005) accepted the position of Visiting Research Fellow in the East Asian Institute at Singapore National University.
Dr. Michael Zabriskie (Ph.D., 2005) is the Director of the University of Michigan Housing Resarch Office, as well as an adjunct assistant professor in CSHPE.
Dr. Patricia M. King
Professor and Director
Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education
