Selected CHEPA Publications

Cole, D., & Espinoza, A. (2008). Improving the academic performance of Latinos in STEM majors. Journal of College Student Development, 49(4), 285-300.

Dowd, A.C., & Melguizo, T. (2008). Socioeconomic stratification of community college transfer access in the 1980s and 1990s. The Review of Higher Education, 31(4), 377-400.

Dowd, A.C., Cheslock, J., & Melguizo, T. (2008). Transfer access from community colleges and the distribution of elite higher education.The Journal of Higher Education,79(4), 1-31.

Kezar, A. (2008). Understanding leadership strategies for addressing the politics of diversity. The Journal of Higher Education, 79(4), 406-441.

Kezar, A., & Lester, J. (2008). Leadership in a divided world of feminism. Journal of Women in Higher Education, 1(1), 49-73.

Kezar, A., Lester, J., Glenn, W., & Nokamato, J. (2008). Examining contextual features that affect implementation of equity initiatives. The Journal of Higher Education, 79(2), 125-159.

Melguizo, T. (2008). Quality matters: Assessing the impact of selective institutions on minority college completion rates. Research in Higher Education, 49(3), 214-236.

Melguizo, T. (2009). Are community colleges an alternative path for Hispanic students to attain a bachelor's degree? Teachers College Record, 11(1).

Melguizo, T., Hagedorn, L.S., & Cypers, S. (2008). The Need for remedial/develop-mental education and the cost of com-munity college transfer: calculations from a sample of California community college transfers. The Review of Higher Education, 31(4), 401-431.

Tierney, W.G., (2008). Academic freedom and the changing nature of faculty work in an age of globalization. In Munir Shuib, Sarjit Kaur, & Rozinah Jamaludiny (Eds.), Governance and leadership in higher education. Pulau Penang, Malaysia: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Tierney, W.G., (2008). Social mobility and stratification in the knowledge society. In Anthony Gladman (Ed.), Europa world of learning 2009. UK: Routledge.

Tierney, W.G. & Sirat, M. (Fall 2008). Challenges facing Malaysian higher education. International Higher Education, 53, 23-24.

Tierney, W.G., & Sallee, M.W. (2008). Do organizational structures and strategies increase faculty diversity?: A cultural analysis. American Academic, 4(1), 159-184.

Tierney, W.G., & Holley, K.A. (2008). Inside Pasteur's quadrant: Knowledge production in a profession. Educational Studies, 34(4), 289-297.

Alfred Hitchcock popularized the term "MacGuffin" in the late 1930s. A MacGuffin is a plot device that moves a story along, or motivates it, but it is of meager, if any, import by the end of the film. The letter of transit in Casablanca is perhaps the most famous MacGuffin. The computer disk in the Coen Brothers recent dark comedy, Burn After Reading is another example of a MacGuffin.

Higher education has its very own MacGuffins - plot devices that consume enormous amounts of time, but ultimately are irrelevant. Here are a few:

Higher education commissions: The Spellings Commission report will find its way in the pile of other national higher education commissions that have said the postsecondary sky is falling for the last century. (Memo to the next administration: No new commissions, please.)

International rankings: They create a windfall for magazines, but do little to improve tertiary education, and may even do harm. Ultimately, they take up band width but do nothing for advancing a country's citizens understanding of academic quality.

National report cards: This is a clever idea gone awry; long-term organizational change comes about by incentives and leadership not by nagging and embarrassment.

Academic "bill of rights": These sorts of agendas consume air-time and inflate the speaking fees of their proponents but do nothing to improve the long-term quality of the academic enterprise.