A new book published by the prestigious Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching lists Tusculum College as one of 12 colleges and universities nationwide "that place moral and civic development at the center of their educational programs."

Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905, the Carnegie Foundation is a major national and international center for research and policy studies about teaching. It played a leadership role in the effort to provide federal aid for higher education (including Pell Grants), and in the founding of the Educational Testing Service and the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA).

The study of which Tusculum was a part stemmed from a concern, in the words of one of the authors, that "students' moral and civic development is not a high priority in American higher education."

The three-year project upon which the book is based reviewed the practices of moral and civic education at more than 100 colleges and universities throughout the country and included detailed case studies of 12. In his foreword to Educating Citizens: Preparing America's Undergraduates for Lives of Moral and Civic Responsibility, Foundation President Lee Shulman says that "from the Air Force Academy to Portland State University … from Duke University to Tusculum College, they [the 12] share a commitment to integrating the highest of academic and civic commitments."

The book is written by four Carnegie Foundation scholars: Senior Scholars Anne Colby and Thomas Ehrlich, Research Associate Elizabeth Beaumont, and Research Assistant Jason Stephens. It is under the imprint of Jossey-Bass of San Francisco as the first in a series published in partnership with the Carnegie Foundation.

In a press release from the Menlo Park, California-based Carnegie Foundation, the book is described as a challenge to U.S. colleges and universities to "make moral and civic learning an integral part of the undergraduate experience."

On its Web site, www.carnegiefoundation.org, the foundation says of the book: "Through a grand tour of American higher education, 'Educating Citizens' shows how institutions can equip students with the understanding, motivation, and skills of responsible and effective citizenship. The book includes rich examples from in-depth studies at 12 institutions and from a wide range of effective programs and approaches on other campuses. The authors' guidelines for implementing these programs can be applied in the full range of higher-education institutions."

In a chapter titled "When Educating Citizens is a Priority," Tusculum College is examined along with famous Duke University and Alverno College, the latter a four-year, liberal arts, independent, Catholic women's college in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The book describes Tusculum College as "a small liberal arts college in Tennessee," which emerged from a institution-threatening crisis after "its president and faculty decided (in 1989) to create an educational model that is centrally concerned with building better citizens."

Among the distinctives of that educational model were a "competency" program that required students to demonstrate mastery of nine competencies, including Self-Knowledge, The Examined Life, Civility, and Ethics of Social Responsibility.

Additionally, the Tusculum model also included a Commons Curriculum that emphasized civic life and responsibility, plus a service-learning element woven into the academic fabric of the college.

With some refinements, the distinctives of that educational approach remain in place at the Tusculum College of today.

"An unusual feature of Tusculum's curriculum is its exclusive focus on one course at a time," the book states. "Each course in this focused calendar meets every day for three and a half weeks. Each academic year contains eight of these blocks."

The book goes on to describe how Tusculum College implements its competency program, finding many similarities and a few 'subtle differences" between the Tusculum and Alverno approaches. Later in the same lengthy chapter, the book recounts the history of fomer President Dr. Robert Knott's "side porch conversations" -- weekly meetings between Dr. Knott and the Tusculum faculty on the side porch of the president's house in the early 1990s. During those meetings, readings from Plato, Cicero, Aristotle and others were discussed and the challenge issued to apply their classic principles to a new undergraduate education model aimed at "building better citizens."

Those early efforts led to a "Civic Arts Revolution" at the college and the distinctive Tusculum educational model described in the book.

"In the fall of 1991," the book states, "Tusculum College was reborn, having at least the initial phases of all these innovations in place.' Tusculum's commons curriculum receives further attention in the chapter "Moral and Civic Learning in the Curriculum."

Tusculum's commons curriculum is described as "unusual in that it is a comprehensive core curriculum composed of particular required courses. Students are not offered multiple alternatives because the Commons Curriculum is intended to provide intellectual common ground and create a community by involving all students and most of the faculty in a shared experience."

Details of the program and its emphasis on reflection, deliberation, and ethical decision making are presented.

According to the Carnegie Foundation press release, "The authors found that on the campuses where significant attention is given, moral and civic learning is thoroughly integrated into students' academic work, and extracurricular activities are employed as powerful sites of moral and civic growth."

The book also offers recommendations as to how educators can incorporate moral and civic education into collegiate life and curricula. "These strategies include creating a campus culture and climate that highlight core moral and civic values, integrating moral and civic issues thoroughly into the curriculum, using a wide range of teaching approaches that actively engage students with their communities, and taking full advantage of extracurricular activities such as political and service clubs and leadership-development programs," the release states.

Despite the civic and moral education emphasis of Tusculum and several other American colleges and universities, American higher education in general is not sufficiently emphasizing those themes, one of the book's authors said.

"Students' moral and civic development is not a high priority in American higher eduation," said Colby. "We have been struck again and again by the many lost opportunities for moral and civic growth in curricular and extracurricular programs on most campuses."

Colby and her fellow authors argue in the book that, despite the oft-cited pluralism of American values, there are "some values that are essential to academic life and American democracy, such as intellectual integrity and concern for truth, open-mindedness and impartiality, mutual respect and tolerance for others, recognition that each individual is part of the large social fabric, and respect for civil liberties and other key elements of our democracy," the press release states.

"Colleges and universities ought to place these values at the center of their work if they are committed to graduating engaged and responsible citizens," said author Ehrlich.

The book, cloth-covered and 352 pages long, may be purchased for $28 by calling Jossey-Bass at 1-800-956-7739, or online at www.josseybass.com and other Internet book outlets.

Tusculum College, the oldest college in Tennessee and the 28th oldest in the nation, is a civic arts institution committed to developing educated citizens distinguished by academic excellence, public service and qualities of Judeo-Christian character. Tusculum is also one of four colleges in the nation that uses the block system, a focused calendar that provides a distinctive learning environment with greater individual interaction between faculty and students. About 800 students are attending classes this fall in the traditional academic program and about 1,100 are enrolled in the Professional Studies program, which accommodates working adults.

The Carnegie Foundation is a policy center devoted to strengthening teaching and learning at America's colleges and schools. The foundation conducts studies and publishes reports intended to shape public debate regarding education. Although its work is primarily focused on the United States, the foundation also participates in international collaborations and projects. The foundation is a nonprofit corporation chartered by an Act of Congress in 1906.