Bringing It #75: The Way Forward Continues

Dear Friends,

It is the last week of classes on our campus, and as the semester draws to an end, we look back on The Way Forward podcast and we look forward with news and reminders.

Looking Back on The Way Forward

We’ve lately received several comments from BT2P friends and readers noting their appreciation for our spring podcast series, The Way Forward: Higher Education In a Time of Crisis. Perhaps it was the end of the fall semester or perhaps it was a slight lessening of pandemic stress; but it seems as if folks are finding time to listen (or listen at more leisure) to those conversations. We’re grateful for the attention and the generous comments.

For those who are interested, The Way Forward podcast features conversations between David and an array of academic leaders and faculty innovators. The episodes feature Freeman Hrabowski (president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County), Nancy Cantor (chancellor of Rutgers University-Newark), Paul Hanstedt (Washington and Lee
University, and the author of Creating Wicked Students), Elaine Maimon (president emerita of Governors State University), Adam Bush (provost, College Unbound), Michele Fine (co-director of CUNY’s Public Scholars Project), and Patricia McGuire (president of Trinity Washington University). The conversations range from visions of engaged, “outside-in” universities committed to their communities, to proposals that center “wicked problems,” not disciplinary 101’s, at the the heart of general education, to stories of successful institutional transformation in the face of fiscal, racial, and health crises. There could hardly be a more inspiring group of thinkers and leaders for pointing the way forward.

We invite you to go back to TWF podcast, either through our website or via Apple Store, Audible, Spotify, or Stitcher. And we welcome your comments and suggestions for future seasons of the podcast.

Coming Soon: An Important Book on Colleges and Civic Engagement

We are delighted to congratulate Richard Guarasci on his forthcoming book Neighborhood Democracy: Building Anchor Partnerships Between Colleges and Their Communities. As president of Wagner College, Richard has spearheaded Wagner’s emergence as an anchor institution for his Staten Island, New York community; in the process, he has served as a national voice for the engaged liberal arts and the responsibilities of academic institutions as anchor partners. His book, due out in December, tells the story of this work and explores the civic and educational benefits of committing the academy to neighborhood democracy. We have this book on our winter reading list and encourage you to put it on yours as well.

BT2P Senior Project Manager Opportunity

As we wrote you last week, Bringing Theory to Practice is searching for a Senior Project Manager to help lead the Paradigm Project, our ambitious new initiative for systemic change in undergraduate education. Please help us spread the word to people and networks who might be interested in this exciting opportunity. The full position description and online application are available here. We will begin to review applications on January 7.

With thanks for everything you do,

David, Gianna, Kelly, & Todd