featured publications

Dowd, A. C., Bensimon, E. M., Gabbard, G., Singleton, S., Macias,
E. E., Dee, J. R., et al. (2006). Transfer access to elite colleges and universities in the United States: Threading the needle of the American dream. Lansdowne, VA: Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.

Reports findings from the Community College Transfer Initiative (CCTI)—a national study of the opportunities that selective schools offer to high-
ability, low-income community college transfer students. The project involved site visits to 16 postsecondary institutions (8 selective four-year institutions, and 8 community colleges) across the country to identify institutional policies and practices that contribute to high rates of community college students transferring to highly selective four-year institutions. The study was conducted jointly by researchers from the New England Resource Center for Higher Education at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and at the Center for Urban Education and the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California. CCTI was co-funded by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, the Lumina Foundation for Education, and the Nellie Mae Foundation.

Saltmarsh, John. (2005). “The Civic Promise of Service Learning.” Liberal Education. 91 (2), p. 50-55.

Abstract: Discusses the significance of the use of service learning to the achievement of civic learning goals in the education sector in the U.S. Challenges encountered by service-learning practitioners in the
mid-1990s; Factors that can be attributed to the appeal of civic engagement to the education sector; Relevance of civic learning framework to the concept of civic professionalism; Knowledge necessary for effective civic participation.

Ingle, Grant. (2005). “Will your campus diversity initiative work?” Academe. 91 (5), p. 13-16.

Abstract: The author offers some conditions to consider before joining a campus' diversity committee to assess the credibility, practicability, and likely success of the diversity initiative. Among other concerns, he points out that a campus-wide diversity initiative is a major campaign, and its communications should reflect that level of importance and seriousness.

Cooper, Tuesday L. (2006). The Sista' Network: African-American Women Faculty Successfully Negotiating the Road to Tenure.
Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing.

The "Sista' Network" is a term used to describe the relationships between and among professional African-American women which enable them to assist one another in learning the unwritten rules and protocols of various professions. In the context of higher education, the Sista' Network can help new African-American women faculty negotiate the road to tenure.A qualitative inquiry into the lives and experiences of nine African-American women faculty during various stages of the tenure process, the heart of this book is a synthesis of the collected data into a roundtable discussion. This format provides an ideal forum in which to tell the women's stories, and it engages the readers in the sharing of their experiences. Also included are 12 guiding principles for new African-American women faculty members embarking upon the tenure process. And throughout, the book weaves in African-American feminist thought with the literature on academic tenure and minority and women faculty experiences in the academy.Tuesday L. Cooper is associate dean in the School of Education/Professional Studies and Graduate Division at Eastern Connecticut State University.

Zlotkowski, Edward (ed). (1998). Successful Service-Learning Programs: New Models of Excellence in Higher Education. Foreword by R. Eugene Rice. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing.

Service-learning offers college students valuable hands-on learning experiences as they unite with their community in cooperative service efforts. Students and professors who participate in service-learning engage in authentic problem definition and problem solving in powerful applications of what they have discussed in the classroom. In this book, experienced leaders share how they have championed successful service-learning programs that have enriched their campuses and renewed their communities. Each chapter provides a personal account of how these directors of service-learning projects have gained the acceptance and resources to design programs that foster a lifelong student commitment to community service and learning. Edward Zlotkowski is professor of English at Bentley College and founder of the Bentley Service-Learning Project. He is former senior associate with the American Association for Higher Education.

NERCHE's community of scholar-practitioners comprises faculty, professional staff, and administrators from a rich array of institutions nationwide. NERCHE is pleased to highlight publications by members of this community, including Think Tank members, visiting fellows, senior associates, and project partners.

Eisenmann, Linda. (2006). Higher Education for Women in Postwar America, 1945-1965. The Johns Hopkins University Press.

This history explores the nature of postwar advocacy for women's higher education, acknowledging its unique relationship to the expectations of the era and recognizing its particular type of adaptive activism. Linda Eisenmann illuminates the impact of this advocacy in the postwar era, identifying a link between women's activism during World War II and the women's movement of the late 1960s. Though the postwar period has been portrayed as an era of domestic retreat for women, Eisenmann finds otherwise as she explores areas of institution building and gender awareness. In an era uncomfortable with feminism, this generation advocated individual decision making rather than collective action by professional women, generally conceding their complicated responsibilities as wives and mothers. By redefining our understanding of activism and assessing women's efforts within the context of their milieu, this innovative work reclaims an era often denigrated for its lack of attention to women. Linda Eisenmann is Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at John Carroll University and past president of the History of Education Society.

Wergin, Jon F. (ed.). (March 2007). Leadership in Place: How Academic Professionals Can Find Their Leadership Voice.
Jossey-Bass - Anker Publishing Series.

In this innovative look at academic leadership, Jon Wergin argues that it’s time to rethink how our colleges and universities are organized and led. The concept of leadership in place calls for a shift in attitude about leaders and leadership—from a hierarchical view that academic leadership flows from a leadership position, to a more lateral view that leadership roles are available to everyone. The contributors to this book, academic leaders from diverse sectors of the academy, tell their stories about leading in place, and each contributes a useful lesson. The book’s final chapter integrates these lessons into an agenda for what higher education must do to create conditions under which leadership in place is the norm rather than the exception. Jon F. Wergin is professor of educational studies in the Ph.D. Program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University.

Dowd, Alicia C. (November 2006). A Research Agenda for the Study of the Effects of Borrowing and the Prospects of Indebtedness on Students’ College-Going Choices. Working Paper prepared by NERCHE for the Project on Student Debt: TICAS.

Abstract: Although student loans are a central feature of the financial aid system in the United States, there is little strong evidence of the magnitude, direction, and variation of the effects of borrowing and the prospects of indebtedness on students college-going choices. Emerging research emphasizes the dynamic and highly interactive relationship between borrowing decisions and student enrollment and degree choices. A broad-based, multi-disciplinary research agenda is proposed to inform financial aid policies and student advising.

Bess, James L. & Dee, Jay R. (2007). Understanding College and University Organization: Theories for Effective Policy and Practice / Two Volume Set. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.

The book is written for administrative and faculty leaders in institutions of higher learning, and for graduate students studying to become upper-level administrators, leaders, and policy makers in higher education. It presents a range of theories that can be applied to many of the difficult management situations that college and university leaders encounter. It provides them with the theoretical background to evaluate the many new ideas that emerge in the current literature, and in workshops and conferences. The purpose is to help leaders develop their own effective management style and approaches, and feel confident that their actions are informed by appropriate theory and knowledge of the latest research in the field. The book offers readers the tools to balance the real-world needs to succeed in today’s challenging and competitive environment with the social and ethical aspirations of all its stakeholders and society at large. The authors’ aim is to elucidate how administration can be made more efficient and effective through rational decision-making while also respecting humanistic values. This approach highlights a range of phenomena that require attention if the institution is ultimately to be considered successful.

University-Community Partnerships: 2006 Worcester Speaker Series. (April 2007). Community Affairs Discussion Paper 07-2. A report prepared by Marga, Inc.

Over the last decade, partnerships between colleges and universities, government, and businesses have helped foster economic development in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts. In 2006, the Worcester UniverCity Partnership, a coalition of private and public sector organizations working with colleges, in collaboration with the New England Resource Center for Higher Education, organized a speaker series aimed at promoting the depth and impact of university-community partnerships in the city. This report provides highlights from the 2006 Worcester Speaker Series, discusses the history and characteristics of Worcesters partnerships, and suggests steps toward a workable action agenda for the city. This is a portrait of one city’s approach to strengthening its partnerships, which can also serve as a model for other cities interested in promoting economic development through university-community partnerships.

Saltmarsh, John & Carriere, Armand. (November 18, 2006). "Campus partners for better communities.” Boston Globe.

In November 2006, NERCHE director John Saltmarsh and Armand Carriere, executive director of Worcester UniverCity Partnership,
co-authored this Boston Globe op-ed article in which they maintain that “a campus-community partnership in Worcester could be a catalyst for creative public policy that encourages community engagement as a core mission of higher education.”

Forrant, Robert. (March 24, 2007). “Beyond campus borders.” Boston Globe.

In this Boston Globe op-ed article, Robert Forrant, professor in the Department of Regional Economic and Social Development at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, cites NERCHE’s role as a catalyst for university-community partnerships: “These days there is a lot of discussion about how the Commonwealth is losing its young, educated population. There is also talk about whether and how universities should extend themselves into their surrounding communities and involve students in activities designed to apply new knowledge to solving social, health, and economic problems...”

Frances A. Maher & Mary Kay Thomson Tetreault. (2007). Privilege and diversity in the academy. New York : Routledge.

Over the past several decades, higher education has been transformed by the entry of faculty of color and white women into the university system. Through detailed institutional ethnographies of three very different universities, Privilege and Diversity in the Academy explores how this diversification has dismantled and reconfigured relationships of privilege and diversity in higher education. Authors Maher and Tetreault use examples from a topranked private university, a comprehensive urban university, and a major public university to illustrate how privilege is enacted, resisted, and transformed as changes occur in the student bodies and faculties of these schools. In their analyses, they identify the institutional structures that facilitate the success of a diverse faculty and make valuable observations about patterns of institutional change and resistance.

Frances A. Maher is Professor of Education at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts.

Mary Kay Thompson Tetreault is Provost Emerita of Portland State University.

Nelson, Stephen J. (2007). Leaders in the Labyrinth College Presidents and the Battleground of Creeds and Convictions.
Westport, CT: Praeger.

Former NERCHE Visiting Fellow Steve Nelson draws on candid interviews with some of the most thoughtful leaders in higher education to reveal how they handle the challenges of one of America's hardest and most important jobs.

Kuh, George D., Kinzie, Jillian, Schuh, John H., Whitt, Elizabeth J. & Associates. (2005). Student Success in College: Creating Conditions that Matter. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Student Success in College describes policies, programs, and practices that a diverse set of institutions have used to enhance student achievement. This book clearly shows the benefits of student learning and educational effectiveness that can be realized when these conditions are present. Based on the Documenting Effective Educational Practice (DEEP) project from the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University, this book provides concrete examples from twenty institutions that other colleges and universities can learn from and adapt to help create a success-oriented campus culture and learning environment.

Read a review of this book by Rhonda M. Gabovitch, Dean of Institutional Research, Planning, and Assessment, Bristol Community College.

Schuster, Jack H., & Finkelstein, Martin J. (2006). The American Faculty: The Restructuring of Academic Work and Careers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Jack H. Schuster and Martin J. Finkelstein describe the transformation of the American faculty in the most extensive and ambitious analysis of the American academic profession undertaken in a generation. A century ago the American research university emerged as a new organizational form animated by the professionalized, discipline-based scholar. The research university model persisted through two world wars and greatly varying economic conditions. In recent years, however, a new order has surfaced, organized around a globalized, knowledge-based economy, powerful privatization and market forces, and stunning new information technologies. These developments have transformed the higher education enterprise in ways barely imaginable in generations past. At the heart of that transformation, but largely invisible, has been a restructuring of academic appointments, academic work, and academic careers—a reconfiguring widely decried but heretofore inadequately described. This volume depicts the scope and depth of the transformation, combing empirical data drawn from three decades of national higher education surveys. The authors' portrait, at once startling and disturbing, provides the context for interpreting these developments as part of a larger structural evolution of the national higher education system. They outline the stakes for the nation and the challenging work to be done.

Read a review of this book by Jay R. Dee, Associate Professor, Higher Education Administration Doctoral Program, University of Massachusetts Boston