This volume captures the spirit of collaboration and innovation that its authors bring into the classroom, as well as to groundbreaking undergraduate programs and initiatives. Coming from diverse points of view and twenty different disciplines, the contributors illuminate the often perplexing debates about what matters most in higher education today. Each chapter tells a unique story about creating vital pedagogical arenas that have the potential to transform teaching and learning for both faculty and students. These exploratory spaces include courses under construction, cross-college and interdisciplinary collaborations, general education reform initiatives, and fresh perspectives on student support services, faculty development, freshman learning communities, writing across the curriculum, on-line degree initiatives, and teaching and learning centers.All these spaces lend shape to an over-arching, system-wide project bringing together the often disconnected silos of undergraduate education at The City University of New York (CUNY), Americäs largest urban public university system. Since 2003, the University¿s Office of Undergraduate Education has sponsored coordinated efforts to study and improve teaching and learning for the system¿s 260,000 undergraduates enrolled at 18 distinct colleges. The contributors to this volume present a broad spectrum of administrative and faculty perspectives that have informed the process of transforming the undergraduate experience. Combined, the voices in these chapters create a much-needed exploratory space for the interplay of ideas about how teaching and learning need to matter in evolving notions of higher education in the twenty-first century. In addition, the text has wider social relevance as an in-depth exploration of change and reform in a large public institution.

Provide unique snapshots on a shared question: how does an institution provide better experience for its students and teachers

Prologue. Beginning an Exchange: Administration, Faculty, and the Shared ConversationRooms in Common: Where Teaching and Learning MatterJudith SummerfieldThe Campus Center: Negotiating the Teaching Spaces of Higher EducationCheryl C. SmithThe Book Structure: An Overview of the ConversationsCheryl C. Smith and Judith SummerfieldPart I. Changing Institutional Spaces: The Challenges of an Integrated UniversityChapter 1Bridging the Colleges: Perspectives on the Integrated UniversityRobert WhittakerChapter 2The Fortunate Gardener: Cultivating a Writing CenterMaria JerskeyChapter 3Accountability/Assessment as a Catalyst for Building College CommunitySue HendersonChapter 4The CUNY Online Baccalaureate: A Transformative CyberspaceBarbara Walters, Ellen Smiley, George Otte, William BernhardtPart II. Negotiating Roles and Identities: The Challenges Faculty and Students FaceChapter 5Creating Space for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Transforming the Meaning of Academic WorkDebra Swoboda, Emily Davidson, Leslie Keiler, and Bonnie OglenskyChapter 6The Writing Fellow/Faculty Collaboration in a Community College: Paradigms of Teaching & Learning Across the CurriculumLinda Hirsch and Andrea FabrizioChapter 7Academic Discourse on a Multilingual CampusAnn Davison, Eva M. Fernández, and Sue Lantz GoldhaberChapter 8The Power of Peers: New Ways for Students to Support StudentsPaul Arcario, Bret Eynon, Louis LuccaPart III. Re-envisioning Pedagogy: The Challenges of Evolving PracticeChapter 9¿Tempo and Reading Well¿Christa Davis AcamporaChapter 10Exploring History, Architecture, and Art Across Three Colleges in the BronxCarl James Grindley, Susan Polirstok, and Harriet ShenkmanChapter 11Campus Without Boundaries: The Brooklyn GreenWalkMonica Berger, Reggie Blake, Anne Leonard, Mark Noonan, Robin Michals, Susan Phillip, Peter SpellaneChapter 12Sparking Student Scholarship through Urban EthnographyKenneth J. GuestChapter 13Building Community in Professional Education: Team Learning by DesignCarol M. Connell