Core Commitments: Educating Students for
Personal and Social Responsibility

The Core Commitments advisory board is comprised of distinguished higher education scholars and researchers who help guide this national effort to make personal and social responsibility a central focus of college learning.

Each advisory board member brings to the project a wealth of knowledge and experience in one or more of the five dimensions of personal and social responsibility on which the initiative is based.

Advisory Board

Larry A. Braskamp, senior fellow, AAC&U, and professor emeritus at the School of Education, Loyola University Chicago (bio)

Mitchell J. Chang, professor of higher education and organizational change, University of California Los Angeles Graduate School of Education and Information Studies

Anne Colby, senior scholar, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Thomas Ehrlich, senior scholar, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Walter Earl Fluker, professor of philosophy and religion, and executive director, The Leadership Center at Morehouse College, Georgia

Patricia Y. Gurin, Nancy Cantor distinguished university professor emerita of psychology and women’s studies, University of Michigan

Patricia M. King, professor of higher education, University of Michigan

Donald L. McCabe, professor of management and global business, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Marcia Mentkowski, professor of psychology and director of educational research and evaluation, Alverno College

Laura I. Rendón, professor and department chair, educational leadership and policy studies, College of Human Sciences, Iowa State University

Sidney A. Ribeau, president, Howard University

John Saltmarsh, director of New England Resource Center for Higher Education, Graduate College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Carol Geary Schneider, president, AAC&U

Patrick T. Terenzini, distinguished professor of education, higher education program and senior scientist, Center for the Study of Higher Education,  Pennsylvania State University

Carol Trosset, director of institutional research, Hampshire College

Advisory Board Biographies

Larry A. Braskamp, senior fellow, AAC&U, and professor emeritus at the School of Education, Loyola University Chicago

Larry A. Braskamp is professor emeritus at Loyola University Chicago. He currently is a senior fellow at the Association of American Colleges and Universities and a senior scientist at The Gallup Organization. He received his B.A. from Central College in Pella, Iowa and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa.  Dr. Braskamp’s career also includes the following positions: Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Loyola University Chicago (1998-2002); Professor, College of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago (1997-98); Faculty Fellow, The International Center for Health Leadership and Development, University of Illinois at Chicago (1997-98); Executive Director, Council for Higher Education Accreditation (1996-97); and Dean, College of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago (1989-96).  He is the co-author of Putting Students First: How Colleges Develop Students Purposefully, Assessing Faculty Work, and the Global Perspective Inventory.

Mitchell J. Chang, professor of higher education and organizational change, University of California Los Angeles Graduate School of Education and Information Studies

Mitchell J. Chang is Professor of Higher Education and Organizational Change at the University of California, Los Angeles and also holds a joint appointment in the Asian American Studies Department. He previously worked as an Associate Dean at Loyola Marymount University and school evaluator at Alum Rock Union Elementary School District in San José, California. Chang's research focuses on the educational efficacy of diversity-related initiatives on college campuses and how to apply those best practices toward advancing student learning and democratizing institutions. He has written over fifty articles and book chapters, and has served on several editorial boards, including The Review of Higher Education, Liberal Education, Equity & Excellence, and Amerasia. He also served as the lead editor of Compelling Interest: Examining the Evidence on Racial Dynamics in Higher Education (with D. Witt, J. Jones, & K. Hakuta, 2003: Stanford University Press). This book was cited in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Grutter v. Bollinger, one of two cases involving the use of race sensitive admissions practices at the University of Michigan. Professor Chang received a National Academy of Education/Spencer Fellowship in 2001 and was awarded the Outstanding Outcomes Assessment Research Award, 1999-2000 by the American College Personnel Association (ACPA). He was also profiled as one of ten scholars named as a 2006 Emerging Scholar by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education (formerly Black Issues in Higher Education) and received the 2008 ACPA Asian Pacific American Network Outstanding Contribution to APIDA Research Award, (shared w/ J. Park, M. Lin, O. Poon, & D. Nakanishi).

Anne Colby, senior scholar, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Anne Colby co-directs the foundation's Political Engagement Project, Preparation for the Professions Program, and Business, Entrepreneurship, and Liberal Learning project. Prior to joining the Carnegie Foundation in 1997, she was director of the Henry Murray Research Center, a longitudinal studies data archive at Radcliffe College. She has co-authored seven books, including Some Do Care: Contemporary Lives of Moral Commitment; Educating Citizens: Preparing America’s Undergraduates for Lives of Moral and Civic Responsibility; Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law; Educating for Democracy: Preparing Undergraduates for Responsible Political Engagement; and Educating Engineers: Designing for the Future of the Field. She is also co-editor of three books. A life-span developmental psychologist, Colby holds a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University. In 2007, she received the Kuhmerker Career Award from the Association for Moral Education for her contributions to research on moral development and education.

Thomas Ehrlich, senior scholar, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Thomas Ehrlich is a senior scholar at The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where he co-directs the Political Engagement Project and the project on Business, Entrepreneurship, and Liberal Learning. He has previously served as president of Indiana University, provost of the University of Pennsylvania, and dean of Stanford Law School. He was also the first president of the Legal Services Corporation in Washington, DC, and the first director of the International Development Cooperation Agency, reporting to President Carter. Before coming to The Carnegie Foundation, he was a distinguished university scholar at California State University and taught regularly at San Francisco State University. He is author, co-author, or editor of twelve books, including Higher Education and Civic Responsibility (2000), Educating Citizens: Preparing America’s Undergraduates for Lives of Moral and Civic Responsibility (2003), Reconnecting Education and Foundations: Turning Good Intentions into Educational Capital (2007), and Educating for Democracy: Preparing Undergraduates for Responsible Political Engagement (2007). He is a trustee of Mills College, and has served as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and Bennett College. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and holds five honorary degrees.

Walter Earl Fluker, professor of philosophy and religion, and executive director, The Leadership Center at Morehouse College, Georgia

Walter Earl Fluker is executive director of the Leadership Center at Morehouse College, Coca-Cola Professor of Leadership Studies, and is currently serving as interim director of the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection. Recently, he was appointed to the Westminster Schools Board of Directors and the advisory board of the American Association of Colleges and Universities’ new initiative, Core Commitments: Educating Students for Personal and Social Responsibility. He also serves on the Board of Overseers at Boston University School of Theology, the Atlanta Speech School, and the editorial board of Liberal Education. Since 1992, he has served as editor of the Howard Thurman Papers Project. Under his direction, the Center has developed into preeminent academic center for the study and practice of ethical leadership in national and global venues. He is currently engaged in expanding a multi-faceted international leadership project in South Africa in partnership with The Oprah Winfrey Foundation, the United States Department of State and the African Presidential Archives and Research Center at Boston University.

Patricia Y. Gurin, Nancy Cantor distinguished university Professor Emerita of psychology and women’s studies, University of Michigan

Patricia Y. Gurin is a faculty associate of the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Institute for Social Research and of the Center for African and Afro-American Studies. She directs research for the Program on Intergroup Relations, a curricular program co-sponsored by the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and the Division of Student Affairs. As a social psychologist, Gurin’s work has focused on social identity; political attitudes and behavior; motivation and cognition in achievement settings; and the role of social structure in Intergroup relations. She is the author of eight books and numerous monographs and articles on these topics. She was an expert witness in the University of Michigan’s defense of its undergraduate and law school admissions policies. In collaboration with Sylvia Hurtado, Eric Dey, Gerald Gurin, and the Center for Post-Secondary and Higher Education at the University of Michigan, she provided the expert report on the educational value of diversity for these lawsuits.

Patricia M. King, professor of higher education, University of Michigan

Dr. King’s teaching and research focus on the learning and development of late adolescents and adults, especially college students. She is interested in approaches to student development that explore the intersections among developmental domains, such as intellectual, identity and social development, and how these affect a range of collegiate outcomes, such as intercultural maturity, citizenship, and character development. Her current work focuses on liberal arts education and the kinds of educational experiences that lead to self-authorship; this project, the National Study of Liberal Arts Education, is sponsored by the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College.  She has co-authored two books, Developing Reflective Judgment (with Karen Strohm Kitchener) and Learning Partnerships: Theory and Models of Practice to Educate for Self-Authorship (with Marcia Baxter Magolda). She served as the founding editor of the national magazine, About Campus: Enriching the Student Learning Experience. In addition to her faculty position, Patricia M. King served as Director of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan (2003-06), Chair of the Department of Higher Education and Student Affairs at Bowling Green State University (1993-98), Assistant Vice President for Student Services at Ohio State University (1979-81), and has also served on several advisory boards for the American Association of Colleges and Universities. She is a Senior Scholar of the American College Personnel Association and received the Contribution to Knowledge Award in 1996.  She also received the  Robert Shaffer Award for Contributions of a Graduate Faculty Member to Student Affairs from the National Association for Student Personnel Administrators in 1995.

Donald L. McCabe, professor of management and global business, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

After working twenty years in the corporate world, Dr. McCabe joined Rutgers in 1988 as professor of organization management. Over the last fifteen years he has done extensive research on college cheating, surveying over 100,000 students at more than 140 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada. He has also surveyed over 18,000 high school students in the United States during the last five years. His work has been published widely in business, education and sociology journals and he is founding president of the Center for Academic Integrity, a consortium of over 350 colleges and universities based at Duke University who are joined in a united effort to promote academic integrity among college and university students. He also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Business Ethics and has previously served on the board of Rutgers Magazine. Dr. McCabe’s recent publications include: “Honor Codes for a New Generation,” Inside Higher Education (2005); "Academic Integrity: How Widespread are Cheating and Plagiarism?," in Restorative Justice on the College Campus: Promoting Student Growth, and Responsibility, and Reawakening the Spirit of Campus Community (2004); and “The [Updated] Principles of Academic Integrity,” Change (2004). Donald L. McCabe has a B.A. in Chemistry from Princeton University (1966), an M.B.A. in Marketing from Seton Hall University (1970), and a Ph.D. in Management from New York University (1985).

Marcia Mentkowski, professor of psychology and director of educational research and evaluation, Alverno College

Marcia Mentkowski received her BA from Downer College of Lawrence University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in educational psychology. A former elementary school teacher, she was tenured on the undergraduate and graduate faculty (masters and doctoral) at the University of Toledo (1968−75). Because of her research and curriculum development in moral development and education, she was invited as a visiting scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1975 and then a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in psychology in 1976. Dr. Mentkowski is currently professor of psychology and director of the educational research and evaluation department at Alverno College where she serves as the Director of Educational Research and Evaluation, Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Research and Evaluation Council at Alverno College. Mentkowski initiated Alverno's approaches to educational research and institutional assessment in 1976, including the Alverno longitudinal research, the validation of performance assessment, and evaluation of major fields. In addition, Mentkowski serves on Alverno's Educational Policies Committee and is a long-standing member of Alverno's Council for Student Assessment. Alverno is a member in the Valuing in Decision-Making Department and has served on Alverno's Curriculum Committee. Dr. Mentkowski is principal author of Learning That Lasts: Integrating Learning, Development, and Performance in College and Beyond.

Laura I. Rendón, professor and department chair, educational leadership and policy studies, College of Human Sciences, Iowa State University

Laura I. Rendón is Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Iowa State University, College of Human Sciences. Her current research focuses on access, retention, and graduation of low-income, first-generation students and the transformation of teaching and learning addressing intellectual, social, emotional, and spiritual student development. Dr. Rendón earned a Ph.D. in higher education administration from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She also earned a M.A. in counseling and guidance and psychology from Texas A&M University-Kingsville (1975). Dr. Rendon earned a B.A. in English and journalism from the University of Houston (1970), and holds an associate of arts degree from San Antonio College. Additionally, Dr. Rendón is co-editor of Transforming the First Year of College for Students of Color, Educating a New Majority, and Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Higher Education ASHE Reader. She is currently working on another book, Sentipensante (Sensing/Thinking) Pedagogy. She serves on the editorial boards of The Review of Higher Education, Educational Researcher, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, Journal of Latinos and Education, and Journal of Chicana/Latina Studies. Dr. Rendon also serves on the local Advisory Board of the National Women’s Studies Association Journal, and the Advisory Board of On Campus with Women. She was also appointed to the Advisory Board of the Handbook of Latinos and Education. Dr. Rendón also serves on the Board of Directors for the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships. She also serves on the Board of Trustees for Naropa University and the National Advisory Board of the National Initiative of Women in Higher Education. She is past president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, the nation’s premier scholarly organization focusing on higher education research.

Sidney A. Ribeau, president, Howard University

In addition to serving as Howard University's president, Dr. Ribeau serves on the boards of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) and Worthington Industries. Raised in Detroit, President Ribeau received his bachelor's degree from Wayne State University and his master's and doctoral degrees in speech communication from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1973 and 1979, respectively. He began his teaching career in 1976 as a professor of communication studies at California State University, Los Angeles. Eight years later, he became chair of the university's Pan African Studies Department. He held that position until 1987, when he was named dean of undergraduate studies at California State University, San Bernardino. Three years later, he became dean of the College of Liberal Arts at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo campus. In 1992, he was named vice president for academic affairs at California Polytechnic at Pomona, a position he held until he became president at Bowling Green State University for 13 years. In 2003, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators honored Dr. Ribeau with its President's Award for "courage and leadership in guiding Bowling Green State University to develop a community focused on student learning and designed to educate the whole student by taking their personal and intellectual growth into consideration."

John Saltmarsh, director of New England Resource Center for Higher Education, Graduate College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Dr. Saltmarsh is the Director of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE) at the University of Massachusetts, Boston as well as a faculty member in the Department of Leadership in Education in the Graduate College of Education. From 1998 through 2005, he directed the Project on Integrating Service with Academic Study at Campus Compact. He holds a Ph.D. in American History from Boston University and taught for over a decade at Northeastern University and as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Feinstein Institute for Public Service at Providence College. He is the author of Scott Nearing: An Intellectual Biography (Temple, 1991) as well as numerous book chapters and articles on civic engagement, service-learning, and experiential education. His writings have appeared in Liberal Education, the Michigan Journal for Community Service Learning, Academe: The Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors, the Journal of Experiential Education, Metropolitan Universities Journal, and the National Society for Experiential Education Quarterly and the Journal of Cooperative Education. He has served as the guest editor for a special issue on service-learning and civic engagement of the Journal of Public Affairs and serves on the editorial board of the Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning and the board of the AACU Center for Liberal Education and Civic Engagement.

Patrick T. Terenzini, distinguished professor of education, higher education program and senior scientist, Center for the Study of Higher Education,  Pennsylvania State University

Dr. Terenzini’s areas of focus include the effects of college on students, institutional research, and assessment of student outcomes. His research examines the effects of college on student learning and development, persistence and educational attainment, and the college experience and outcomes for low income and first-generation students. He has also conducted extensive research on learning among undergraduate engineering students. He is co-author (with Ernest T. Pascarella) of How College Affects Students (1991, 2005), Terenzini has also published more than 120 articles in refereed journals and delivered more than 250 presentations at scholarly and professional conferences. He has received the research awards of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, the Association for Institutional Research, the American College Personnel Association, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, and the student personnel associations of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. He is a three-time winner of the Forum Best Paper Award from the Association for Institutional Research. Most recently, Terenzini (and colleagues) received the William Elgin Wickenden Award from the American Society for Engineering Education for the best paper published in the Journal of Engineering Education in 2001. In addition to his work at Penn State, Dr. Terenzini's career includes adminstration and teaching at Dean College, Syracuse University, State University of New York at Albany, and the University of Georgia. He earned an A. B. in English from Dartmouth College, an M.A.T. in English education from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in higher education from Syracuse University. Additionally, Dr. Terenzini is a former editor-in-chief of New Directions for Institutional Research, associate editor of Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research. He has been an editorial board member for The Review of Higher Education for twenty-five years. He is also a past president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.

Carol Geary Schneider, president, AAC&U

Dr. Carol Geary Schneider has been president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities since 1998. In 2005, Dr. Schneider initiated Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP), a campus action and public advocacy campaign design to engage students and the public with what really matters in college. She also led AAC&U's national initiative on higher education and pluralism, American Commitments: Diversity, Democracy and Liberal Learning. Prior to her appointments at AAC&U, Dr. Schneider spent ten years at the University of Chicago, where she directed the Midwest Faculty Seminar. She was a founding director of The University of Chicago Institutes on Teaching and Learning and also helped establish the Chicago Teaching Program. She has also taught at Boston University, Chicago State University, The University of Chicago, and DePaul University. In 1982, she was named a Mina Shaughnessy Fellow of the U.S. Department of Education and she has been a distinguished Visiting Scholar at The American University in Cairo, 1997 and a Getty Center Visiting Scholar for the Seminar on Public Culture in 1998. Dr. Schneider has published extensively on all the major areas of her educational work. Her most recent articles include: "Liberal Education Takes a New Turn"(pdf) in The NEA 2008 Almanac of Higher Education and "Putting Liberal Education on the Radar Screen" in The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 23, 2005. Dr. Schneider is a magna cum laude graduate and current member of the Board of Trustees of Mount Holyoke College where she received the bachelor's degree in history and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She studied at the University of London's Institute for Historical Research and earned the Ph.D. in early modern history from Harvard University, where she held a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, a Harvard Prize Fellowship, and a Kent Fellowship from the Danforth Foundation. Dr. Schneider has also received honorary degrees from Towson University, Wagner College, Westminster College (UT), Prince George's College, and the College of Wooster.

Carol Trosset, director of institutional research, Hampshire College

Carol Trosset has been director of institutional research at Hampshire College since 2004. Her current projects center on the assessment of senior theses, retention analysis, and Hampshire's participation in the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education. For nine years before that, she was director of institutional research at Grinnell College. Her published research areas include student approaches to the discussion of diversity issues, student and faculty expectations of advising relationships, student perceptions of various academic disciplines, and the nature and validity of the information provided in student end-of-course evaluations. She has done a variety of outcomes assessment consulting work, including a number of projects studying the learning outcomes of undergraduate research, and recently chaired the Higher Education Data Sharing (HEDS) Consortium's 2007 Forum on assessment. She also regularly teaches pre-conference workshops on qualitative analysis methods. Dr. Trosset holds a BA from Carleton College and a PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. Before entering institutional research, she held visiting faculty positions at the University of Arizona, Tulane University, the University of Virginia, Grinnell College, and Beloit College. Dr. Trosset’s recent publications include : "Implementation and Assessment of Course-Embedded Undergraduate Research Experiences: Some Explorations. " In Creating Effective Undergraduate Research Programs in Science: The Transformation from Student to Scientist (2008); "Discovering What Students and Professors Expect from Advising Relationships." In Using Mixed Methods in Institutional Research (2007); “Evaluating Quality of Engagement in Hampshire College’s First-Year Plan” (Peer Review, 2006); and “Do Students Understand Liberal Arts Disciplines?” (Liberal Education, 2006).