A decade ago, the majority of liberal arts colleges, suffering from a decline in resources, drifted from their traditional missions. This study looks at three insitutions and suggests that a clear mission is more than a common goal.

Missions matter. A decade ago, the majority of liberal arts colleges found themselves operating in a perilous environment with declining resources. Many drifted from their traditional missions and began offering programs whose sole purpose was to appeal to prospective students. The result on many campuses was a fragmenting of purpose and a diminishing of institutional life.
The study looks at three institutions - LeMoyne-Owen, Olivet and Tusculem Colleges. The research provides a window into this complex, fascinating and ultimately powerful process. The accounts suggest a clear mission is more than a common goal - it is the formation of a shared belief system with new values and norms that create a richer more meaningful institutional life. Policy makers, institutional leaders, researchers and faculty members will find this book an invaluable resource in understanding cultural change and how mission matters.

Employing history, social theory, and a detailed contemporary case study, Knowledge for Social Change argues for fundamentally reshaping research universities to function as democratic, civic, and community-engaged institutions dedicated to advancing learning and knowledge for social change. The authors focus on significant contributions to learning made by Francis Bacon, Benjamin Franklin, Seth Low, Jane Addams, William Rainey Harper, and John Dewey-as well as their own work at Penn's Netter Center for Community Partnerships-to help create and sustain democratically-engaged colleges and universities for the public good. Knowledge for Social Change highlights university-assisted community schools to effect a thoroughgoing change of research universities that will contribute to more democratic schools, communities, and societies. The authors also call on democratic-minded academics to create and sustain a global movement dedicated to advancing learning for the "relief of man's estate"-an iconic phrase by Francis Bacon that emphasized the continued betterment of the human condition-and to realize Dewey's vision of an organic "Great Community" composed of participatory, democratic, collaborative, and interdependent societies.