What can donors and alumni do to increase civic learning?
Alumni and donors have an important role to play in improving the teaching of American history and institutions in higher education.
Specifically, they can:
- Encourage faculty, administrators, and fellow donors, trustees, and alumni to promote the teaching of American history, texts, and institutions and to discourage replacement of these basic topics with any ideological agenda.
- Give restricted gifts specifically for programs that teach America’s heritage.
- Take note of a university’s assessment of student learning in these areas in guidelines, recommendations, and reports.
- Encourage the alumni magazine to focus on this topic.
- Write a letter to the editor in the alumni magazine.
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Raise the issues addressed in Shaping of the American Mind at board meetings, and seek the help of other concerned board members, alumni, or donors to create genuine dialogue about these issues at the governing and administrative levels of your college or university.
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute offers several resources of interest to donors and alumni:
ISI’s Membership Program for college-aged students (Free)
Asking the Right Questions in Choosing a College (Free)
Choosing the Right College (CollegeGuide.org)
All-American Colleges (ISI Books)
Student’s Guides to the Major Disciplines (CollegeGuide.org)
Recalling Education (ISI Books)
At War with the Word (ISI Books)
John Dewey and the Decline of American Education (ISI Books)
Civic Education and Culture (ISI Books)
Bonfire of the Humanities (ISI Books)
The Life of the Mind (ISI Books)
Additional resources can be found at www.CollegeGuide.org.