Table of Contents

• The Meaning of the Baccalaureate
  • By Margaret A. Miller
  • Thinkers and scholars have been pondering the meaning of the baccalaureate degree for many years.The author, whose work with the National Forum on College‐Level Learning now has her grappling with this very issue, examines current thinking about the core skills students need to learn in college and reveals its historical precedents.
• The First Year and Beyond—Charles Schroeder Talks to John Gardner
  • John Gardner reflects on everything from current efforts to improve the first‐year experience to the assessment movement, student expectations of college, professional preparation for student affairs, and more.
• What Helps Some First‐Generation Students Succeed?
  • By Sandria Rodriguez
  • We know a fair amount about what first‐generation students need to succeed, but some mysteries remain. Why do certain students make it and others not? The author's research provides some insight.

• DEPARTMENTS
• In Practice—Serving The Quiet Majority: The Drexel Commuter Program
  • By Ann H. Wilson
• What does it take to truly serve commuter students? Drexel University decided to find out. The result is an award‐winning program.
• Campus Commons—Ouch
  • By Lee Burdette Williams
• When an issue is tough, what do the tough do?
• What They're Reading—In Search of Ernest Boyer's Legacy
  • By Dennis C. Roberts
• In the years since Boyer's ideas on community first appeared, many campuses have had the opportunity to put them in practice. A recent book examines what these efforts look like.
• Bottom Line—It Takes a Year
  • By Mary Stuart Hunter and James S. Gahagan
• Most campus orientation programs are offered in the first few weeks of college, but what happens when those first weeks are over?