Chapter One
An Agenda of Common Caring
The Call for Community in Higher Education
E. Grady Bogue
In the closing years of the twentieth century, a concern for "community"
enjoyed a renewed visibility in public conversation and
literature, as reflected in Habits of the Heart (Bellah and others,
1985) and The Spirit of Community (Etzioni, 1993). A similar theme
entered the literature of higher education with the often-cited special
report titled Campus Life: In Search of Community (The Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1990). The theme
of "community" was also engaged in journal pieces (Kuh, 1991;
Miller, 1994; Tompkins, 1992).
An important hope is carried in this opening chapter. It is the
hope that those holding our colleges and universities in trust-students,
faculty, staff, trustees-will understand that colleges and
universities are complex, essential, and precious communities in our
national life. Marketplace pressures are being increasingly felt in
American higher education. We are invited to view students as customers
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