Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This volume explores the multifaceted and tumultuous transformation of American higher education after World War II. Returning veterans with GI Bill benefits ushered in an era of unprecedented growth that fundamentally altered the meaning, purpose, and structure of higher education by encouraging changes in institutional forms, curricula, clientele, faculty, and governance.
Charles Dorn discusses how the University of South Florida became the first public university to explicitly serve the burgeoning urban population with a mix of liberal arts, the sciences, and career-oriented programs. W. Bruce Leslie and Kenneth O'Brien explain how teachers colleges were repurposed as state colleges and regional universities to meet the insatiable demand for traditional studies. Julianna Chaszar argues that massification raised concerns over diluted standards that led colleges and universities to experiment with special academic programs for exceptional students.
Timothy Cain reveals the origins of faculty unionism and collective bargaining, and Roger Geiger discusses the dramatic student protests that rejected the "American Way of Life" and forever changed higher education. Adam Laats offers a countervailing example of 1960s upheaval by exploring how evangelical institutions responded to student protests and social change. Collectively, the contributors describe American higher education at a critical moment in its history.