George Kuh receives lifetime achievement award
George Kuh, Chancellor's Professor of Higher Education at Indiana University Bloomington, has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American College Personnel Association.
The award honors a member who has a recognized level of scholarly productivity and leadership sustained over two decades or more and other long-term involvement and service to the field of student affairs. Kuh is only the fifth person to receive the award, which was bestowed during the association's annual meeting in Indianapolis on March 20.
"As we all know, George helped shift the focus of our field from student development to student learning with his authorship of the Student Learning Imperative (SLI): Implications for Student Affairs," said ACPA President and IU alum Gregory Blimling during the meeting. "His guidance and vision revitalized and advanced our profession's effectiveness and purpose. Other notable publications of his, Involving Colleges and the more recent Student Success in College, will remain as our profession's cornerstones for decades to come."
Last year Kuh was awarded the 2005 Virginia B. Smith Innovative Leadership Award, which recognizes individuals whose leadership in higher education has resulted in better ways to educate people to participate in and improve an open and inclusive democratic society. The Virginia B. Smith Innovative Leadership Award is jointly administered by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. Kuh, considered a national leader in addressing and improving the quality of undergraduate education in the United States, also is director of the Center for Postsecondary Research, which houses the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), the NSSE Institute for Effective Educational Practice, and the College Student Experiences Questionnaire Research Program.
NSSE, an annual survey of more than half a million college students, provides information to colleges, universities, states and policymakers to improve undergraduate education. Over the past five years, the NSSE project has been at the forefront in reshaping national perceptions about student success and the quality of undergraduate study.
Under Kuh's leadership, NSSE has developed several tools to help colleges and universities use the survey results to improve their services. This has included national roundtables, regional users workshops, an accreditation tool kit, and a new five-year initiative to improve student attainment at minority-serving institutions.
Kuh served as associate dean of the faculties at IUB from 1997 to 2000, associate dean for academic affairs in the School of Education from 1985 to 1988, and chairperson of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from 1982 to 1984. He has more than 250 publications and has made several hundred presentations on college student development, assessment strategies for postsecondary institutions, and campus cultures.
For more information about the Center for Postsecondary Research and NSSE, visit http://education.indiana.edu/pprcenter.html.
