Institutional Change and the Transformative Potential of the University

The change mandate for postsecondary and tertiary institutions requires little context. In the United States, the tensions between higher education and its public demands are evident as institutions struggle to support more participants than ever before in a system with finite resources. Recent assessments of the purposes and outcomes for American higher education show ongoing concerns over achievement gaps that persist across economic, racial, ethnic and gender lines, declining civic engagement among college graduates, and overall outcomes that are primarily “private and personal rather than public and societal” (National Center for Postsecondary Improvement, 2002, p. 4).