My Philosophy of Research.

My transdisciplinary research explores and challenges higher education to reconsider educational equity across its approaches to cocurricular programs and student success which impacts the college experience. My own recent critiques of American higher education paint a rather dismal portrait of how little learning may actually be occurring on our campuses. Other scholars suggest that the need to connect meaningful and intentional social activities to engaged learning experiences (Arum & Roksa, 2011; Bok, 2007). To engage with such students requires a special person: one who has flexibility, commitment, and an uncanny ability to deal with ambiguity.  In some ways, these are the very kinds of capacities that William Perry (1970) outlines in his seminal study on the intellectual and ethical development of college students themselves.  The halls of academe demand that kind of maturation from us all.  This means that we, who serve in higher education, must also practice deep self-reflection if we are to be effective agents of student development.