BusinessWeek 22 December 1997 -------------------------- http://www.businessweek.com/1997/51/b3558140.htm --------------------------- Assaulting the Ivory Towers Winners of the Pew Leadership Award, given in 1996 and 1997 to universities and colleges that demonstrate creativity and results in restructuring themselves: ALVERNO This Catholic women's college in Milwaukee is the grandmother of reengineering. Its 20-year-old, ability-based curriculum develops competency in communication, analysis, and six other areas. BABSON It now stresses interdisciplinary collaboration between once rival business and liberal arts programs. A three-tiered curriculum leads students toward self-directed, independent study. EASTERN NEW MEXICO Many of its students are widely dispersed and poorly prepared. The university developed courses for interactive TV and the Internet, using facilitators and peer coaching at 12 remote sites. MOUNT ST. MARY'S In inner-city Los Angeles, it established a weekend college for working adults, offered evening classes, and restructured an associate's degree to make graduates more job-ready. PORTLAND STATE It wasn't effectively serving its poor, urban students, many of whom dropped out. The answer: an interdisciplinary curriculum that relies on inquiry-based courses and peer mentors. RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC The engineering school reduced the number of courses students take, making each heftier. It came up with ''studio classes,'' combining lecture hall, laboratory, and seminar. DATA: INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH ON HIGHER EDUCATION, BW Copyright 1997, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
