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                     THE COURAGE TO QUESTION

                         WOMEN'S STUDIES
                      AND STUDENT LEARNING


                  Edited by Caryn McTighe Musil

              ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES AND
           NATIONAL WOMEN'S STUDIES ASSOCIATION, 1992



                      PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
                              1992

                        Project Director
                       CARYN McTlGHE MUSIL
                          Senior Fellow
                Association of American Colleges

                        Project Associate
                          SUZANNE HYERS
                Association of American Colleges

  Project Coordinators, Participating Colleges and Universities
          ANITA CLAIR FELLMAN, Old Dominion University
            LAURIE A. FINKE, Lewis and Clark College
                ROSANNA HERTZ, Wellesley College
         MARY JO NEITZ, University of Missouri-Columbia
   MICHELE PALUDI, City University of New York-Hunter College
                SUSAN REVERBY, Wellesley College
                LINDA R. SILVER, Oberlin College
     JOAN TRONTO, City University of New York-Hunter College
              GAY VICTORIA, University of Colorado
               JEAN WARD, Lewis and Clark College
             MARCIA WESTKOTT, University of Colorado
          BARBARA A. WINSTEAD, Old Dominion University

                    National Assessment Team
     CAROLYNE W. ARNOLD, University of Massachusetts-Boston
      LEE KNEFELKAMP, Teachers College, Columbia University
               JILL MATTUCK TARULE, Lesley College
                JOAN SHAPIRO, Temple University
                  MARY KAY THOMPSON TETREAULT,
              California State University-Fullerton

                       External Evaluator
  PATRICIA HUTCHINGS, American Association for Higher Education



                        TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER TWO
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO

CHAPTER THREE
LEWIS AND CLARK COLLEGE

CHAPTER FOUR
OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY

CHAPTER FIVE
WELLESLEY COLLEGE

CHAPTER SIX
CUNY-HUNTER COLLEGE

CHAPTER SEVEN
OBERLIN COLLEGE

CHAPTER EIGHT
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA

CHAPTER NINE
CONCLUSION

                         ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 In keeping with its leadership in the assessment movement, the
Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) of the
U.S. Department of Education funded our three-year grant and this
volume, The Courage to Question. FIPSE did so in a period when
backlash against women's studies had just reemerged with a new
vehemence. This project could not have come into being without the
quietly insistent and shrewdly wise counsel of our first FIPSE
program officer, Constance Cook, now executive assistant to the
president at the University of Michigan.

A special debt also is owed to the Association of American
Colleges. Paula P. Brownlee, president of AAC, and AAC's executive
vice president, Carol G. Schneider, agreed a year ago to
collaborate on the publication of The Courage to Question,
repeating the earlier cooperation between the National Women's
Studies Association (NWSA) and AAC that had produced Liberal
Learning and the Women's Studies Major and AAC's Reports from the
Fields. AAC has graciously provided office space for me and my
project associate, Suzanne Hyers, and welcomed us as sojourners.
Gary Egan, director of finance and administration, and his staff
have been especially helpful with financial arrangements and Lenora
J. Wilson, associate director of administration, with setting up
our office.

We asked AAC to cosponsor The Courage to Question in part because
of the high quality of its publications. Our volume has benefitted
immeasurably because of AAC's Publications Office. We are
particularly indebted to the support, editing, and productive
cooperation of its director, Sherry Levy-Reiner, and to the
editing, planning, and good humor of Kristen A. Lippert- Martin,
editorial associate, who saw our project through from start to
finish. We are grateful as well for additional editorial support
from David M. Stearman and Lisa L. Magnino.

NWSA housed the grant during its first two years, and the project
ran more smoothly because of administrative support from Sharon
Neufeld, NWSA's office manager the first year, and particularly
Melinda Berriman, its office manager the second year. Loretta
Younger, NWSA's current office manager, has assisted this year with
the financial administration of the grant.

It has been a personal as well as a professional joy to have the
opportunity to work once more with Suzanne Hyers, NWSA's former
national conference coordinator, who graciously agreed to be the
project associate and lend us her legendary administrative skills.
No problem is ever unsolvable when Suzanne is around, and she makes
it fun to come into work. She also is a superb editor.

While there are single names attached to articles in this volume,
the final product has been enhanced by the collective effort and
conversations of many people. Each of the seven participating
women's studies programs has included specific acknowledgments
within their chapters. All of us benefitted from the invigorating
dialogue shared among the various people who have moved in and out
of the project over a three-year period. The project was especially
enriched by the practical expertise and conceptual challenges of
the National Assessment Team--Carolyne A. Arnold, Lee Knefelkamp,
Joan Shapiro, Jill Mattuck Tarule, and Mary Kay Thompson
Tetreault--and the project's external evaluator, Pat Hutchings.

Finally, we thank the thousands of students whose comments and
opinions are the heart of this research. You will hear some of
their voices woven into the text. They have given us courage to ask
difficult questions, confirmation that our commitment to feminist
education makes a difference, and hope that the world can one day
be made anew.

Caryn McTighe Musil, 
Project Director, 
and Senior Fellow, 
Association of American Colleges