Donald Harward, former president of Bates College and now director of Bringing Theory to Practice (BTtoP), has edited a newly released book about undergraduate education. The 41 authors tackle the interrelated problems that students often disengage from learning, professors are alienated from teaching, and students are disconnected from communities in ways that harm them psychologically.

University of Michigan Professor Barry Checkoway, Wagner College President Richard Guarasci, and I contribute a chapter on “Renewing the Civic Purposes of Liberal Education.”

In his introduction, Don Harward cites four major themes that run through the volume. In my paraphrase, these are:

1. Campus cultures can be changed.
2. Liberal education has epistemological, psychosocial, and civic aspects. The three must be considered together.
3. Certain troubling behaviors of students can be ameliorated by engaging them better academically.
4. We have a base of effective programs and centers, but we must move toward deeper and more systematic change.