Liberal arts colleges represent a tiny portion of the higher education market, yet produce a stunning percentage of America’s leaders. But the demand for career-related education has pressured them to become vocational, distorting their mission and core values. This book is a wake-up call for everyone who values liberal arts education.

Liberal arts colleges represent a tiny portion of the higher education market—no more than 2 percent of enrollees. Yet they produce a stunningly large percentage of America’s leaders in virtually every field of endeavor. The educational experience they offer—small classes led by professors devoted to teaching and mentoring, in a community dedicated to learning—has been a uniquely American higher education ideal. Liberal Arts at the Brink is a wake-up call for everyone who values liberal arts education. A former college president trained in law and economics, Ferrall shows how a spiraling demand for career-related education has pressured liberal arts colleges to become vocational, distorting their mission and core values. The relentless competition among them to attract the “best” students has driven down tuition revenues while driving up operating expenses to levels the colleges cannot cover. The weakest are being forced to sell out to vocational for-profit universities or close their doors. The handful of wealthy elite colleges risk becoming mere dispensers of employment and professional school credentials. The rest face the prospect of moving away from liberal arts and toward vocational education in order to survive. Writing in a personable, witty style, Ferrall tackles the host of threats and challenges liberal arts colleges now confront. Despite these daunting realities, he makes a spirited case for the unique benefits of the education they offer—to students and the nation. He urges liberal arts colleges to stop going it alone and instead band together to promote their mission and ensure their future.

The Poetical gazette; the official organ of the Poetry society and a review of poetical affairs, nos. 4-7 issued as supplements to the Academy, v. 79, Oct. 15, Nov. 5, Dec. 3 and 31, 1910

More than two thousand schools and kindergartens world-wide provide Waldorf education to children in Australasia, North and South America, Europe, the Far East, and Africa. How does this educational movement manage to bridge the cultural and social differences found in such diverse places as Egypt, Japan, Croatia, Brazil, New Zealand, and South Africa? How can one pedagogy find acceptance in First World societies as well as squatter and refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, Soweto, and Favela Monte Azul?This collection of essays by local and international authors -- published on the brink of the 21st century -- describes the factors underlying the multicultural acceptance and success of this vital movement.

This sweeping, dramatic narrative of the making and unmaking of foreign policy during the Reagan years is told through the stories of three men and one woman who changed history during one of the world's most decisive and divisive decades. On the Brink also reveals the personal tolls their roles took on these four diplomats, and their contributions to the collapse of communism. 16 photos.

Gift of Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut.

Comprises 13 contributions that explore theoretical and practical aspects of the millennium-era situation in Russian and the CIS. Individual chapter topics include Russian grand strategy towards China, Russia's strategy in Southeast Asia, key issues of Russian national defense policy within modern geopolitical contexts, the role of the US and Russian parliaments in the foreign policy-making process, and Russian missile technology and nuclear reactor transfers to Iran. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR