Editor’s Note A Rising Tide Lifts All BoatsFrank Shushok, Jr. “The aphorism, ‘a rising tide lifts all boats,’ implies improvements in the general economy will benefit all participants in that economy. As we hand off About Campus to new Executive Editor, Professor

Editor’s Note Alone, Together Frank Shushok, Jr. “I recently heard a metaphor about a driver who hit an icy patch and slid off the road toward a large tree. In total panic, the driver’s focus was on the tree, in

Editor’s Note Irreconcilable Differences Frank Shushok, Jr. “It seems that everywhere you look—on our campuses, statehouses, and social-media feeds—folks are talking at one another about their own beliefs, values, and perceptions of the world. These kinds of conversations seem to

Editor’s Note Mirror, Mirror Frank Shushok, Jr. “I spent the fall semester on the campus of Wake Forest University… I learned that when you only look in the mirror, what you see doesn’t change that much. I think higher education

Editor’s Note Gates, Not Fences Frank Shushok, Jr. “As many of you reading this may also concede, troubling times in which we fail to listen and understand others as fellow travelers on life’s journey sow the seeds of fear, hate,

Editor’s Note Off the Mark Frank Shushok, Jr. “…Although I don’t have any, I love reading the bumper stickers people put on their cars. Fair warning, bumper sticker community—you’re a traffic hazard! I’ve come dangerously short of several traffic accidents

Editor’s Note People. That’s Why. Frank Shushok, Jr. “…Whenever a prepared, empowered “we” mobilizes a passionate, productive “why,” the result is game-changing, life-altering, people-centric work that has the potential to change the course of history. Wherever there are these kinds

Editor’s Note Gathering Wisdom Frank Shushok, Jr. “…Although I cannot recall most of the things I must have said in Deb’s presence, I can imagine what I have uttered in ignorance or immaturity, especially in those earliest days of our friendship. Instead of

Editor’s Note Collecting Hope Frank Shushok, Jr. “The best news of all is that hopefulness is a starting point we can all embrace; it’s a path out of anywhere we don’t wish to be; it’s an exit plan for whatever

Editor’s Note |Absolute Value| Frank Shushok, Jr. “I have a love–hate relationship with college rankings. I celebrate rankings that tout the insti-tutions I love—just check my Twitter and Facebook feeds for confirmation. I ’ m equally quick to bemoan the

Editor’s Note Two Steps Forward… Frank Shushok, Jr. “…asking big questions and trying to solve daunting problems—and not getting them right—can make one feel stupid. This made sense to me, although I had never fully considered the implications of this

Editor’s Note The Character Quotient Frank Shushok, Jr. “In a time when our rhetoric and practice in higher education tilts more in the direction of skill development for well-compensated employment, will we also have the courage to prepare students to

Editor’s Note Learning to Struggle Frank Shushok, Jr. “The old adage ‘where you stumble and fall, there you will find pure gold’ seems true to me these days. If you’re like me, you have some rough patches. I wish it

Editor’s Note Selling Higher Education Frank Shushok, Jr. “At universities across the country, it seems ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ is still the name of the game, and it’s expensive. It’s not just the physical plants we’re selling either– its

Editor’s Note For Whom the Red Carpet Rolls Frank Shushok, Jr. “If I ask you to call up a mental picture of the Academy Awards, chances are good you’ll envision dresses and speeches and personalities on the spectrum from dazzling to disappointing.

Editor’s Note Complicate Yourself Frank Shushok, Jr. “As a young doctoral student at the University of Maryland, my academic guide Robert (Bob) Birnbaum was fond of telling my fellow graduate colleagues and me to “complicate ourselves.” Bob ’ s counsel

Editor’s Note Pay Attention to the Frog Frank Shushok, Jr. “Ever since my first visit over a decade ago, Southwestern Montana is my self-identified “God spot.” The mountains, trout streams, wildlife, rugged terrain and night skies, for whatever reason, help me see

Editor’s Note The Heart of Our Practice: The Stories We Carry with Us Frank Shushok, Jr. “Five years ago this spring, I wrote an article for About Campus called ‘When Good People Happen to Bad Things’. Back then, I was one

Editor’s Note The Opportunity Gap Chasm Frank Shushok, Jr. One thing that’s clear to me is that unbridled hope finds a sure foundation when it is available to the whole—the whole of our communities and the whole of our institutions across the

Editor’s Note The Stories We Find Ourselves In by Frank Shushok, Jr. When the first edition About Campus hit mailboxes in March 1996, I was living in Flagstaff, Arizona, serving in my first higher education role, fresh out of a master’s degree program, feeling truly

Editor’s Note On Teaching Empathy by Frank Shushok, Jr. My good friend Scott Moore once told me that he doesn’t like the common saying, “Let’s agree to disagree.” Instead, he prefers, “Let’s keep disagreeing.” The first statement indicates a discussion

Editor’s Note Frank Shushok, Jr. In the television drama Criminal Minds, a favorite of the Shushok family, there is an episode in which a former FBI agent, Max Ryan, returns from retirement to work a cold case known as “the