Transforming Students: Fulfilling the Promise of Higher Education

Introduction

introduction We live in transformational times. Colleges and universities are struggling to adapt to a radically new environment. The economic crisis has devastated budgets just as demands for accountability and outcomes continue to increase . Student demographics are shifting, redefining the characteristics of a typical undergraduate. Emerging technologies are challenging long-held assumptions about where, how, and when faculty teach, why students need to live together on a campus, and what it means to learn. To confront these and other challenges, we should resist solutions offered by the technology du jour and focus on the fundamental purposes of higher education. As Wendell Berry (1987) reminds us, “The thing being made in a university is humanity. . . . Underlying the idea of a university—the bringing together, the combining into one, of all of the disciplines—is the idea that good work and good citizenship are the inevitable by-products of the making of a good—that is, a fully developed—human being” (77). If we take Berry’s message seriously, we should concentrate our efforts on the mission of undergraduate education. We need to return to the work of transforming students. When we write of transformation, we are not suggesting that higher education should mold students into a specified form, belief system, or mind-set. Colleges do not make widgets. But colleges can play an important role in cultivating transformation understood as an ongoing process of intentionally aligning one’s actions and behaviors with one’s evolving sense of identity. Such learning and development, of course, can happen in many places and at many points during life, not just in college. Transformation is the work of a lifetime, not simply a task to pursue over four ivy-covered years. What higher 2 Transforming Students education can do, what we must do, is prepare students for a life of continuing change and development. Our purpose is to help students both transform themselves and understand the process of transformation so that they are well-equipped to embrace change and flourish after they graduate. The undergraduate years are a unique opportunity for transformation. Many students enter college at a ripe developmental moment, yearning to understand themselves and to connect with something bigger. Higher education cannot guarantee that this degree of change will take place, but we can provide curricular and cocurricular experiences that challenge students’ current views, guide them in the examination of their assumptions, and offer them the chance to construct an emerging sense of self and relationship with the world. An engaging undergraduate education gives students multiple opportunities to act on their own values and test their commitments in complex situations. In this way, college is like a practice room where a musician hones her craft, struggling and failing to hit all the notes until finally, after diligent work and with guidance from mentors, she is ready to perform on the stage. While the practice room is an appealing metaphor, it raises a fundamental question: What exactly does higher education prepare students to do? What are undergraduates practicing for? These days, some call for a more vocational orientation that would generate graduates who are ready for particular workplaces or careers. The need for practical skills and knowledge is powerful, but a narrow attention to specific and existing jobs ignores the reality of the rapidly changing world our graduates will enter. Economic commentators frequently remark on the number of jobs that college graduates are likely to hold over their careers, often in fields that haven’t yet been invented. And employers are seeking out people with broad capacities to meet these changing demands. A 2013 report by Hart Research Associates, for example, notes that college graduates’ “demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than their undergraduate major” in hiring decisions (emphasis in original). Rather than solely or even primarily preparing graduates for particular jobs, higher education must prepare students to navigate our complex and rapidly evolving world. While we cannot possibly know everything they might face in the future, we do know the general sorts of things our students Introduction 3 will encounter. They will live and work with diverse peoples and cultures, requiring them to understand and cooperate across differences. The economy and workplace will continually change, prompting them to assess often incomplete information and adjust nimbly. Their values and beliefs will be confronted, leading them to weigh competing...