Description

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From two veteran educators, Steven Volk and Beth Benedix, a succinct and impassioned call to reimagine the small liberal arts college after COVID-19.

Private liberal arts colleges have struggled for decades. Now, after the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the weaknesses in many American institutions, they are possibly facing a mortal crisis.

In The Post-Pandemic Liberal Arts College: A Manifesto for Reinvention, Volk and Benedix call for small colleges to seize this moment as an opportunity for renewal. With the rise of rankings that set peer institutions against each other, skyrocketing tuition, creeping preprofessional programs, and a race to build the splashiest new amenities for student "customers," many private liberal arts colleges have strayed from their founders' original missions. If they could shed the mantle of exclusivity, reduce costs, facilitate true social mobility, and collaborate with one other, the authors argue, they might both survive and again become just, equitable institutions that are able to transform their students' lives.

A slim, accessible book for educators, students, parents, and anyone else who's invested in the future of higher education.

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.