Winner of the 2002 Alice L. Beeman Research Award for Outstanding Writing about Communications from the Council for Advancement and Support of EducationAmong higher education institutions in the United States, for-profit colleges and universities have steadily captured a larger share of the student market. A recent trend at for-profit institutions is the coupling of job training with accredited academic programs that offer traditional baccalaureate, professional, and graduate degre...

While he celebrated higher education as the engine of progress in every aspect of American life, George Keller also challenged academia’s sacred cows and entrenched practices with provocative ideas designed to induce “creative discomfort.” Completed shortly before his death in 2007, Higher Education and the New Society caps the career of one of higher education’s exceptional minds.Refining and expanding ideas Keller developed over his fifty-year career, this book is a clar...

George Keller’s case study of Elon University’s transformation from a struggling college with a limited endowment into a top regional university is now available in paperback.Ten years after the publication of Transforming a College, Elon University continues to thrive as a school that reinvented itself and its community around the idea of inspiring and guiding students. George Keller’s now-classic account has been used as an inspiration and playbook for m...

“Jabberwocky” is one of the most well-known nonsense poems in the English language. Though full of playful made-up words like “brillig,” “mimsy,” and frumious,” the poem still tells a story. A young warrior faces up against the fearsome Jabberwock, armed with a “vorpal blade,” and comes out triumphant: “O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” This poem first appeared in the middle of Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, Carroll’s follow-up to the well-beloved children’...

On June 16, 1918, union leader Eugene Debs delivered this speech at the Ohio State Socialist Party Convention. In it, he famously criticized the USA’s involvement in World War I. Four days later, the federal grand jury condemned his speech by way of the Sedition Act of 1918, and he was sentenced to ten years in prison. Debs serves as an inspiration for all those who persistently advocate for the working class despite opposition.

In the middle of a church service, a man is struck by a sense of dread. As impassioned organ music fills the building, the man senses that the source of his anxiety is coming from a hostile organist. What is the root of the musician’s animosity? Is it real, or is the narrator just imagining it? This quick, suspenseful story from The King in Yellow gives readers a taste of Chambers’ mastery of the horror genre.

With this 1990 speech, American politician William Jennings Bryan presents a compelling argument against imperialism. He outlines how maintaining military force over other nations goes against core American values. The speech highlights specific issues that were current at the time, particularly US relations with Cuba and the Philippines. Though the speech is over 100 years old, its core points about American democracy ring true in contemporary foreign affairs.

The period known as the Avignon Papacy began in 1309, when Pope Clement V relocated the seat of papal power to Avignon, France. The French monarchy slowly gained control over the papacy during this time, and as they did, corruption and greed grew in the church. The troubadour and priest Raimon de Cornet staunchly opposed the Avignon Papacy for these reasons. He summarized his grievances in this noteworthy poem, in which he states, “I see the pope his sacred trust betray, / For while the ri...

In 1517, the great reformer Martin Luther wrote to the Archbishop of Mainz objecting to the sale of indulgences. With humble reverence, Luther explains his opposition to this practice. People bought indulgences on the premise that they were purchasing absolution for themselves or for those of a loved one suffering in purgatory. Luther argues that salvation comes only from sincere repentance, and that for this reason, he could no longer keep quiet about this heretical matter.

In 1520, Martin Luther debated Catholic theologian Johann Eck in Leipzig—and lost. After the debate, the pope threatened Luther with excommunication. He responded by writing this address to the German nobility, urging them to consider his reforms for the church. He argues that the Catholic church abuses undue power, and asks, “If we rightly hang thieves and behead robbers, why do we leave the greed of Rome unpunished?”

With “The Prophets’ Paradise,” acclaimed horror writer Robert Chambers plays with form to create a series of dream-like prose poems. In one section, a woman empties a jar of blood on a patch of white flowers, crying out, “I have killed him I loved!” In another, a clown tells Death, “You are very beautiful.” These eerie, yet ethereal poems defy interpretation and will linger in the minds of readers.

President Woodrow Wilson delivered this address on January 22, 1917, a few months before he asked Congress to vote to enter World War I. This speech reveals that he planned for the US to participate in the peace-making agreements long before he planned to take part in the fighting itself. The peace strategy he lays forth in this address mirrors the sentiments of his “14 points” message, delivered a year later at the end of the war. He states that these ideas are not just American ideals, “...