Fielding President Katrina Rogers wrote this op-ed that published in today's Diverse Issues in Higher Education, about the promise--and challenges--of competency-based education: Increasing Equity and Access Through Competency-based Education: What Do We Know? Interest in competency-based education (CBE) is surging in the higher education community, and across the nation; college-level programs are evolving and emerging. Introduced in the U.S. in the 1960s, largely in response to concerns by some that students were not equipped with the skills required for life after college, competency-based education models have grown up and are getting a serious, second look from educators—and the federal government. Dr. Katrina [...]

Fielding announces the first book published by the Fielding University Press: A Passion for Adult Learning: How the Fielding Model is Transforming Doctoral Education, by longtime HOD faculty member Keith Melville. Focused on Fielding’s founding generation, the book is described by former board chair Michael Goldstein as “a vivid and engaging chronicle.” When Fielding started in 1974, it was a radically innovative program. Ten years later, it was the nation’s first low-residency doctoral program to be fully accredited. This book traces the evolution of the program’s principles and practices over four decades, and examines the ways in which Fielding’s learning model [...]

L-R: UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang, Katrina Rogers, Bill Flores, Anthony Beebe, Bernie Luskin, Kevin Walthers, and Otto Lee. President Katrina Rogers welcomed new Santa Barbara City College President Anthony Beebe to the community Thursday evening at a reception at her home, Fielding’s McCune House in the Santa Barbara foothills. Dr. Beebe, who became president of City College on July 1st of this year, is currently a doctoral student in Fielding’s School of Leadership Studies. “Fielding’s PhD program in Human and Organizational Development has been perfect for me as a practitioner-scholar,” he said. “My dissertation focuses on participatory governance in [...]

On September 9, President Katrina Rogers will give the keynote speech at the free community forum "Pondering Peace in a World of Turmoil" hosted by Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, Calif. The forum extends from September 9 through 11, marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. ”In remembrance of the many lives lost through that one grievous act of terrorism, as well as the recent acts of violence rocking so many communities throughout the U.S., it is my hope that our event will inspire other individuals and institutions to step up and create ways to begin dialogue within their [...]

Look how much Fielding University Press has accomplished since it launched earlier this year! Published:   A Passion for Adult Learning by Keith Melville is a fascinating chronicle of Fielding's genesis, and how its unconventional model for adult learning has been adopted and imitated by mainstream universities ever since. The book was published earlier this week with rave reviews from, among others, George E. Walker, director of the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate, and Alan E. Guskin, president emeritus of Antioch University. Veteran and Family Reintegration, edited by HOD faculty Miguel Guilarte and Fielding alumnus Barton Buechner, brings together seven studies on the often “unseen injuries” suffered [...]

Did you know that the past two Olympics games have been featured in dissertations by Fielding PhD students? When a Russian terrorist group threatened the security of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Media Psychology student Rafael Linera-Rivera analyzed the fear of threat on social media. His dissertation Social Representation of Threat in Extended Media Ecology: Sochi 2014 Olympics, Jihadist deeds, and online propaganda employed semiotics, social representations theory, and minority influence to explore how the images and language content from the terrorist attacks and their extremist online propaganda video against the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics translated to mainstream media platforms and Twitter. [...]

Reducing inequality and promoting social justice have always been a part of our core values. So when Fielding’s summer session convened outside of Chicago in the days following the shootings by—and then of—police officers, we used it as an opportunity to dig into the issues at hand and explore the role higher education can play in addressing racial and ethnic injustice. “The intersections and complexities surrounding racial injustice, structural inequality, and economic disparities are the issues of our times,” said President Katrina Rogers, PhD. “Universities must be places where open and constructive dialogue and action take place. (L-R) Drs. Orlando Taylor, Patricia [...]