Sandy Kanter

“Remembering Sandy Kanter”

Zelda F. Gamson

Senior Associate, New England Resource Center for Higher Education,

Graduate College of Education, University of Massachusetts Boston

and

Howard London

Dean School of Arts and Sciences, Bridgewater State College

Sandy Kanter believed deeply that the academy, for all its problems, was a force for good. Her life-long commitment to progressive values, her training in economics, and her experiences as faculty member and administrator drove her to this view.

Sandy Kanter1 After earning a B.A. from Connecticut College, a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D in economics from MIT, Sandy spent a year at Harvard as a Loeb Fellow. She joined the faculty of UMass Boston’s College of Public and Community Service (CPCS) in 1974. CPCS, one of the most unusual colleges in the country with its racially diverse student body and competence-based curriculum, appealed to Sandy’s populist streak. From 1984-87, she was associate dean at CPCS.

Her life at UMass Boston changed soon after—and it would become intertwined with the authors of this remembrance. Zelda (“Zee”) Gamson had worked with Sandy as a consultant at CPCS in the early 1980s. At the urging of Ernest Lynton, Zee took a position at UMass Boston at the McCormack Institute of Public Affairs to create the New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE). Sandy became a central adviser and senior associate in NERCHE.

When the Graduate College of Education (GCE) opened, Sandy joined a committee chaired by Zee Gamson to plan a doctoral program in higher education administration. Sandy brought to the committee her experience as a faculty member and administrator working with adult students at CPCS. As soon as the program was approved, Howard London became its first director and Sandy joined him, Ernest Lynton, Joan Tonn and Zee Gamson as a faculty member. She continued in the program until the end of her life, teaching ground-breaking courses and mentoring students, as well as directing the higher education program, chairing the Department of Leadership in Education, and taking on increasing responsibility in the GCOE and UMass Boston.

In the early years of her association with NERCHE and the GCE, Sandy also directed a study of general education reform. With the help of a grant from the Exxon Education Fund, Sandy and project members conducted intensive site visits to 15 colleges and universities. As the work progressed, Sandy enjoyed the serious and often high-minded discussions of the findings about why and how curriculum reform took place. But she could also point out--hilariously--some absurdity or political maneuver. Her political intuitions and growing sociological sophistication kept the team grounded as it wrote Revitalizing General Education in a Time of Scarcity: A Navigational Chart for Administrators and Faculty (Kanter, Gamson, London, with Arnold and Civian, Allyn and Bacon, 1997).

Sandy became the public face of the general education reform project. At NERCHE she developed and directed the Liberal Learning Think Tank for administrators in New England with responsibilities for implementing and overseeing general education reform. Her most creative work went into case studies, composites drawn from the campuses in the project—short, witty, and full of clever clues. She presented these case studies at the Association of American Colleges and Universities; the American Association for Higher Education; and the Association for General and Liberal Studies.

Sandy transformed herself into a stand-up comic for these events. Simultaneously playing “President Barbara Kay,” “Provost Jack Merritt,” “Chair of the Board Barry Sugarman,” “philosopher and chair of the gen ed planning committee ‘Eric Pizzott’,” and “young Sarah Byrne, writing teacher and chair of the gen ed core committee,” Sandy moved the audience through the details of the story. She provoked, she cajoled, she burst bubbles.

Sandy the teacher taught audiences of faculty members and administrators how to think clearly about how their own institutions worked. Sandy the political analyst asked: Who benefits? Who loses? Who has the power to make this happen? Who can slow it down? Sandy the economist asked: How much will it take to do this? Where will the resources come from? Sandy the activist asked: How can you make this work for the greater good? She loved every minute. That was because she was passionate about all of these ways of thinking, not only in front of audiences but in her life. That is the Sandy we remember.

Sandra Kanter Remembrance Fund. The Sandra Kanter Remembrance fund supports the Kanter Library in the Graduate College of Education at UMass Boston. The library is a collection of academic materials designed to support ongoing research in higher education. To contribute to this fund, please download a contribution form.

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