Core Commitments: Educating Students for Personal and Social Responsibility

Members of the Personal and Social Responsibility Research and Educational Change Collaborative

Alexander W. Astin, Allan M. Cartter Professor Emeritus of Higher Education at the University of California, Los Angeles and Founding Director of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA. Dr. Astin has served as Director of Research for both the American Council on Education and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. He is the Founding Director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, an ongoing national study of some twelve million students, 300,000 faculty and staff, and 1,600 higher education institutions. Dr. Astin has authored 20 books and some 300 other publications in the field of higher education, and has been a recipient of awards for outstanding research from more than a dozen national associations and professional societies. He has also been elected to membership in the National Academy of Education, has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, and is the recipient of eleven honorary degrees. Description of Research.

Helen S. Astin, Professor Emeritus of Higher Education and Senior Scholar of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA. Dr. Astin served as the Associate Provost of the College of Letters and Science at UCLA from 1983 to 1987. Helen Astin has been a trustee of Mt. St. Mary's College since 1985, and served as a trustee of Hampshire College from 1972 to 1979. She has served on the Board of Governors of the Center for Creative Leadership and on the Board of the National Council for Research on Women. In the American Psychological Association, Dr. Astin has served on the Boards of Policy and Planning and Education and Training and has been president of the Division of the Psychology of Women. She has also served as Chair of the Board of the American Association for Higher Education. She has published numerous articles and eleven books, including Women of Influence, Women of Vision: A Cross-Generational Study of Leaders and Social Change (1991) and The Woman Doctorate in America (1969). Her research and current writings focus on leadership and on spirituality in higher education. Description of Research.

Muriel Bebeau is a Professor in the Department of Primary Dental Care, School of Dentistry; Director of the Center for the Study of Ethical Development; and a Faculty Associate in the Center for Bioethics, all at the University of Minnesota. An educational psychologist by training, her primary research interests are the processes involved in ethical decision-making (sensitivity, reasoning and judgment, commitment, and actions) and their role as determinants of ethical behavior. Bebeau pioneered the teaching of ethics in dentistry. To evaluate outcomes, she and the late developmental psychologist James Rest designed and validated measures that assess functional processes that give rise to morality. Bebeau writes on ethical issues facing the dental profession, has consulted with ethics educators in over 50 institutions on the design of curriculum and assessment, has lead seminars for peer review boards, and designed individualized courses for dental professionals cited for ethics infractions. The Association for Moral Education recognized her contributions to moral psychology with its life-time achievement award. She is a three time recipient of the American Association of Dental Schools' outstanding research award, a recipient of awards for educational innovation, and in 2000, she and her colleagues received outstanding book awards from two divisions within the American Educational Research Association. Description of Research.

Charles Blaich, Director of Inquiries at the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts. Dr. Blaich received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Connecticut. After a one year research post-doc, he served as an Assistant and then Associate Professor of Psychology at Eastern Illinois University from 1987-1991. Blaich joined Wabash College in the fall of 1991. In addition to teaching Psychology at Wabash, Blaich served for two years as the co-chair of Cultures and Traditions, an interdisciplinary year-long course for all sophomores at Wabash College. While at Wabash College, Blaich received the College’s McLain-McTurnan-Arnold Excellence in Teaching Award and two National Science Foundation grants. He previously received teaching awards from the University of Connecticut and Eastern Illinois University. In 2002, Blaich assumed his current position at the Center of Inquiry. Blaich's recent publications include "Do Liberal Arts Colleges Really Foster Good Practices In Undergraduate Education?" in the Journal of College Student Development, and "Liberal Arts Colleges And Liberal Arts Education: New Evidence On Impacts" An Association for the Study of Higher Education- Educational Resources Information Center (ASHE-ERIC) monograph. Description of Research.

Ashley Finley, formerly an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Dickinson College and recently appointed Program Director of Assessment for Learning at the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Dr. Finley is also the national evaluator for Bringing Theory to Practice where she oversees assessment protocols and the implementation of evaluation strategies on project sites, and has primary responsibility for the aggregation and dissemination of national findings.  Her current research focuses the impact of engaged learning initiatives, such as learning communities, on college students’ civic development and well-being, and the institutional-level costs of assessing forms of student disengagement on college campuses.  Dr. Finley’s previous research has focused broadly on issues of gender inequality, with specific emphasis on the interplay of relative poverty assessments and female-headed households in Mexico.  She teaches courses in social inequality, gender issues, and quantitative methods.  Description of Research.

Teresa Fishman, Director, Center for Academic Integrity. Dr. Fishman came to the Center for Academic Integrity after five years at Clemson in the college of Architecture, Arts, and Humanities where she taught courses on subjects ranging from science, technology and Society to digital and visual rhetoric. Her interest in ethics and academic integrity dates back to her pre-academic career in law enforcement which also inspired her master's thesis. She continues to investigate and write about the complex communication practices of police and other emergency responders and more broadly, governmental and institutional rhetoric, including that of universities. Her work also includes analysis of online communication and the evolving rules and mores of virtual communities. Description of Research.

Sylvia Hurtado, Professor and Director of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA in the Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences. Just prior to coming to UCLA, Dr. Hurtado served as Director of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. Dr. Hurtado has published numerous articles and books related to her primary interest in student educational outcomes, campus climates, college impact on student development, and diversity in higher education.  She obtained her Ph.D. in Education from UCLA, Ed.M. from Harvard Graduate School of Education, and A.B. from Princeton University in Sociology. Dr. Hurtado has coordinated several national research projects, including a U.S. Department of Education-sponsored project on how colleges are preparing students to achieve the cognitive, social, and democratic skills to participate in a diverse democracy. She is launching a National Institutes of Health project on the preparation of underrepresented students for biomedical and behavioral science research careers. She has also studied assessment, reform, and innovation in undergraduate education on a project through the National Center for Postsecondary Improvement. Description of Research.

L. Lee Knefelkamp, Senior Scholar and Director of Dialogue and Assessment, Core Commitments, AAC&U. Dr. Knefelkamp, in partnership with Richard Hersh, and with research assistance from Lauren Ruff, developed the initial draft of the Personal and Social Responsibility Inventory (PSRI) for AAC&U's Core Commitments initiative in 2006.  Dr. Knefelkamp is a professor of psychology and education, Teachers College, Columbia University, and teaches in the programs of social–organizational psychology and higher education and has also held administrative posts as program coordinator and department chair. She directed the student development graduate program at the University of Maryland, served as dean of the school of education at American University, and as academic dean of the faculty at Macalester College. For thirty years, she has researched and written about student intellectual, ethical, identity and intercultural development; curriculum transformation; issues of race, ethnicity, and gender; campus climate assessment; and the psychology of organizational change and resistance to change. She is a senior fellow with AAC&U and has been a national panel member for the American Commitments and Greater Expectations initiatives. Description of Research.

Alexander C. McCormick, Director of National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). Dr. McCormick also holds a faculty appointment in the Indiana University School of Education’s Educational Leadership and Policy Studies department, where he teaches in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Through his work with NSSE, McCormick aims to enrich the national discourse about quality and accountability in higher education, while also providing institutions with tools they can use to diagnose and improve undergraduate teaching and learning. His research interests center around assessment and accountability in higher education, and also organizational change and improvement in higher education. Prior to joining Indiana University, McCormick served as Senior Scholar at The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where he directed a major overhaul of the Foundation's widely-used Classification of Institutions of Higher Education and also served as director of survey research. McCormick began his career in higher education as an admissions officer at Dartmouth College, where he subsequently served as Assistant Dean of the College. McCormick holds a Ph.D. (education and sociology) and a Master’s degree (educational administration and policy analysis) from Stanford University, and a bachelor’s degree (French) from Dartmouth College. Description of Research.

For more information, please contact Chad Anderson, Program Associate, at 202-387-3760, ext. 429, or email anderson@aacu.org.