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April 12, 2006 -- “Equity and Excellence in American
Higher Education,” published by the University
of Virginia Press, has captured two major awards in a span
of three days.
The University Continuing Education Association announced
Tuesday, April 11, that the book, written by William G.
Bowen, Martin Kurzweil and Eugene Tobin, was the recipient
of the 2006 Philip E. Frandson Award for Literature in
the Field of Continuing Higher Education. On Sunday, the
American Educational Research Association announced that
the book has received their prestigious 2006 Outstanding
Book Award.
“Excellence and Equity in American Higher Education” was
originally published in April 2005 by the University of
Virginia Press, and will be released in paperback on April
30, 2006.
The book is based on a series of lectures that William
Bowen gave in 2004 to mark the beginning of the Curry School
of Education’s centennial year. The lectures were
part of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Distinguished Lecture
Series, which was created in 2001 with a generous gift
from the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. In the book, the
authors assert that excellence at America’s elite
colleges is threatened by the failure to enroll more students
from disadvantaged backgrounds. They propose placing another “thumb
on the scale” for students from low-income families
as a complement to race-sensitive admissions.
Founded in 1915, the University Continuing Education Association
assists institutions of higher learning and affiliated
nonprofit organizations to increase access through a wide
array of educational programs and services. The award was
presented to a representative of the authors on April 11
at the UCEA’s annual meeting.
The American Education Research Association is a professional
society that has strengthened education through research
since 1916. Accepting the award on April 9 at the AERA’s
annual meeting, Kurzweil stated, “Improving the quality
of American education and enhancing the openness of educational
institutions to young people from all backgrounds will
require creative policymaking, political will, and recognition
of the important links between equity and excellence. Our
book is just a gentle push down the path toward achieving
this dual goal, but the award gives us hope that it has
generated some momentum.”
William G. Bowen, the former president of Princeton University
and president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is coauthor
of “The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences
of Considering Race in College and University Admissions,” “The
Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values,” and “Reclaiming
the Game: College Sports and Educational Values,” among
other works. Martin A. Kurzweil is research associate at
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and a student at Harvard
Law School. Eugene M. Tobin, former president of Hamilton
College, is program officer for the Liberal Arts Colleges
Program at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The University of Virginia Press was founded in 1963 to
advance the intellectual interests not only of the University
of Virginia, but of institutions of higher learning throughout
the state. A member of the Association of American University
Presses, UVaP currently publishes fifty to sixty new titles
annually.
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