Academically Adrift. Or Not?

In the spring of 2011, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa released what some would consider a controversial book called Academically Adrift. As many in the ACCU community know, various media outlets referenced this study in order to report college and university students were not learning at an acceptable level, did not study enough, and were not meeting the expectations of employers. Soon afterward, I began receiving phone calls and emails from students and colleagues at my institution asking if the results applied to University of St. Thomas (UST) students. Fortunately, we began administering the CLA (2007) two years after the authors study cohort. This fortuitous timing placed us in a position to respond to our university community. In fact, the institution was in the midst of administering the final section of the longitudinal study at the same time the study was released.............