About BT2P
Who is the “we” of BT2P?
We’re a community of educators dedicated to both the core purposes of higher education and the need to transform higher education.
We’re a national project, headquartered at Elon University, supporting that community and advancing its work of change.
We’re a network of thinkers, leaders, advisors, allies, and partners helping to guide that work.
Our Commitments
Our work is grounded in three commitments.
We believe that undergraduate education should be holistic and transformative — fostering engaged learning, personal and community well-being, meaningful preparation for work, and democratic citizenship.
We believe that educating the whole student means including and supporting all students — whoever they are, whatever they study.
We believe that these commitments require fundamental change — change that will reshape the student experience, academic institutions, and the relationship of higher education to the larger society.
Making Change
Since 2003, BT2P has funded hundreds of campus initiatives. We’ve convened researchers, teachers, and students to share their findings and their practice-wisdom. Our publications have reported on, reflected on, and advocated for innovation and institutional change.
We now focus on collaboration among academic institutions, across academic sectors, and with communities. We believe that change doesn’t happen campus-by-campus. It comes by building a national community of change leaders and amplifying their voices in the public conversation about higher education.
Big change is necessary if we are to confront the challenges facing higher education and the larger crises facing American society. Big change is possible because higher education has enormous wells of creativity, purpose, and passion to draw on. So do our students.
Even in this time of pandemics, deepening inequality, suffocating racism, and climate emergency — especially now — higher education doesn’t need disruption. It needs radical renewal.
With Thanks
BT2P is supported by generous funding from The Endeavor Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and others. The Endeavor Foundation is dedicated to the fostering of independent thought, ethical understanding, and excellence in liberal education. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supports the arts and humanities as a means of “building just communities, where ideas and imagination can thrive.” We are grateful for their belief in our work.