Introduction

Abstract

At the publishing of this text, the twenty-first century is nearly two decades old, with higher education marching to the ever-changing beat of technological advances, financial challenges, public demands, increasing interjections of social media constructs, and changing dynamics in its student and faculty populations. No longer seen only as the great ivory towers of knowledge or society’s “think-tanks,” colleges and universities are charged with the task of responding to increasing demands for graduatinga skilled workforce. In addition, with mounting costs of higher education and increased institutional belt-tightening, faculty and administrators are under pressure to provide clear student learning assessment and outcome accountability. As Louise Hainline et al. note in the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) Peer Review, “the economy is … demanding the leveraging of resources and the integrationof outcomes between the private and public sector [in] preparingstudents to be productive members of the workforce …” (2010, 10). These outside forces are only part of the impetus for higher education to venture into new directions. Many colleges and universities are also altering academic and campus life to accommodate differing generations of students and faculty.