Linking diversity with the educational and civic missions of higher education

The 2005 ASHE Presidential Address focuses on the practical, theoretical, and empirical rationale for making diversity central to the institutional mission. Institutional efforts to prepare students for a diverse democracy is a transformational strategy for nurturing the development of the next generation of change agents who will work to close existing socioeconomic gaps. Higher education scholarship can be useful in shaping the agenda for change, and more attention can be devoted to positioning the research focused on inequality to identify areas of change.