2005 Event Details
Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk
Documentary Screenings and Discussion Session
September 6 & 7, 2005
The Center of Inquiry invites everyone—faculty, staff, and students—to attend a screening of the PBS documentary Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk on Tuesday, September 6 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The second half of the program will be shown again on Wednesday, September 7 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Both screenings will be held in Korb Classroom in the Fine Arts Center.
Please join us for a discussion of the documentary on Monday, September 12 from 12:15 to 1:00 p.m. in Detchon Center, Room 220. Bring your lunch; we’ll provide beverages and snacks.
To encourage continuing discussions on this topic, the Center of Inquiry asked for LiberalArtsOnline responses to Declining by Degrees. Read responses.
NSLAE Pilot Study Debrief
June 26, 2005
| Participants | Institution |
| Marcia Baxter Magolda |
Miami University |
| Vi Bitterman | ACT |
| Marie Kendall Brown | University of Michigan |
| Gregory Griffin | Coe College |
| Ann Hower | University of Michigan |
| Patricia King | University of Michigan |
| Nathan Lindsay | University of Michigan |
| Matthew Mayhew | University of North Carolina Wilmington |
| Randy McClanahan | ACT |
| Ernie Pascarella | University of Iowa |
| Tricia Seifert | University of Iowa |
| Mike Valiga | ACT |
| Kathleen Van Steenhuyse | Kirkwood Community College |
| JoNes VanHecke | University of Michigan |
11th Annual Midwest Qualitative Research Conference
Critical Research: Action and Advocacy
June 22–24, 2005
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The University of St. Thomas will host the 11th Annual Midwest Qualitative Research Conference from June 22-24, 2005 in Minneapolis, MN. This year’s plenary session topics will focus on critical research and the examination of how power works through policy, organizational structures, and practices in our workplaces and communities. Critical research challenges practitioner-scholars to address poverty, violence, racism, and other forms of domination and exclusion. Marjorie De Vault, Syracuse University, and Ellen Pence, Praxis International, will present the opening plenary session, "Exploring Organizations (and Making Changes): The Institutional Ethnography Approach." Dr. De Vault will introduce institutional ethnographic research and its usefulness in studying the intersections of policy, structures, and procedures in the everyday life of organizations. Dr. Pence will focus on how she and interagency research teams use institutional ethnography for safety audits that examine policies and routine practices in the criminal and civil court system dealing with domestic violence cases. Concurrent sessions feature individual paper, panel, symposium, and works-in-progress presentations by graduate students, faculty members, and professionals from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Experienced and novice researchers discuss struggles, epiphanies, methods, theories, and applications of their qualitative projects. Presenters use a variety of research methods, including ethnographic case studies, narrative, life history, and historical studies. Researchers from the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts will give two panel presentations at this conference. Kimberly Kline, Debra Gentry, and Jennifer Laskowski, along with Megan Moore Gardner (John Carroll University) and Kate Boyle (University of St. Thomas), will present, "What part of this is mine? Experiences of Researchers Collaborating on a Large, National, Qualitative Study," and "A Pilot Study on Liberal Arts Outcomes: Initial Impressions of Five Qualitative Researchers." |
Faculty and Staff Breakfast
February 18, 2005
We invite faculty and staff to join our guests at Trippet Hall for breakfast on Friday, February 18th from 7:30–8:30 AM.
We will be hosting a conference, The Oberlin Group/Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges (CLAC) Workshop.
The Oberlin Group/CLAC project, led by Sam Demas and Joel Cooper (Carleton), Diane Graves (Trinity University), and Gene Spencer (Bucknell), started in the spring of 2004. The goal of this initiative is to create a conversation focused on improving the liberal arts by exploring ways to further collaboration between libraries and information technology organizations on individual campuses or through the larger collaboration of the two overarching consortia. See more information on this conference.
We hope that you will be able to join us for breakfast. We do ask that you respond via email to Bill Doemel so that we have an idea of the number of people to expect.
AAC&U 2005 Annual Meeting
Liberal Education and the New Academy: Raising Expectations, Keeping Promises
January 25–28, 2005
Faculty and administrators from the Center of Inquiry and Wabash College are leading three sessions at AAC&U’s 2005 Annual Meeting:
New Scholarship for the New Academy: Liberal Arts Colleges Learning from Student Learning
Friday, January 28, 4:15–5:30 p.m.
This session is designed to prompt and promote dialogue about the goals, strategies, benefits, and challenges of investigating student learning in liberal arts colleges. What questions are most pertinent? How can scholarly approaches to classroom inquiry address outcomes and accountability? Where do we find evidence of critical engagement, reflective awareness, and intentional inquiry? By raising questions and offering strategies, this session expands the conversation about liberal arts colleges and collaborative approaches to scholarship, teaching, and learning.
- Charles F. Blaich, Director of Inquiries, Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College
- Richard Gale, Senior Scholar, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Immersion Learning: An Alternative Model for Off-Campus and Study-Abroad Programs in Liberal Arts Education
Saturday, January 29, 7:30–9:00 a.m.
Breakfast Roundtable Discussion
This panel presentation highlights the implementation of immersion learning experiences at Wabash College and Kalamazoo College and suggests that such programs may provide a valuable alternative to institutions that cannot afford the cost or potential disruption of a large-scale traditional off-campus or study-abroad program. The panel suggests immersion learning experiences provide the benefit of exposing a greater number of students to unique learning environments while maintaining the connection to the home campus community.
- Richard E. Berman, Dean of Experiential Education, Kalamazoo College
- Daniel J. Rogalski, Special Assistant to the Dean of the College, Wabash College
- V. Daniel Rogers, Associate Professor of Spanish, Wabash College
- Robert R. Royalty, Assistant Professor of Religion, Wabash College
Student Achievement of Liberal Arts Outcomes: A Study of Claims and Causes
Saturday, January 29, 9:15–10:30 a.m.
The Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College is pleased to announce the National Study of Liberal Arts Education, and to invite institutions to express their interest in being involved. This study aims to identify educational conditions and experiences that foster the achievement of liberal arts outcomes. It will explore not only the degree to which students who attend a range of types of institutions achieve these outcomes, but the specific kinds of collegiate experiences and educational initiatives that are associated with the achievement of these learning outcomes.
- Charles F. Blaich, Director of Inquiries, Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College
- Patricia M. King, Professor and Director, Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, University of Michigan
Click here for more information about the annual meeting.
Faculty/Staff Breakfast
January 10, 2005
We invite faculty and staff to join our guests at Trippet Hall for breakfast on Monday, January 10th from 7:30–8:30 AM.
We will be hosting a conference, Project Kaleidoscope: What does it mean to be liberally educated in the 21st Century?
The National Science Foundation, Directorate for Education and Human Resources/Division of Undergraduate Education, is calling for conversations on this question—at the campus level, within regional and virtual communities, and at the national level. Project Kaleidoscope has been asked to engage colleagues within the nation's liberal arts colleges and comprehensive universities on addressing this question. This will be their first meeting. See http://www.pkal.org/documents/NationalConversationLiberallyEducated.cfm for more information.
We hope that you will be able to join us for breakfast. We do ask that you respond via email to so that we have an idea of the number of people to expect.