In a study of African American (n = 208) urban high school students, grade point average (GPA) and specific strategies for coping with day-to-day stressors were found to be significantly related to psychological adjustment. Students who had higher GPAs tended to use family members as a means of solving problems, minimized problems by the use of humor, and used relaxation activities less often were found to have the most positive psychological adjustment, as measured by the index score of the Affects Balance Scale (ABS). Reported negative affect was not found to be significantly influenced by coping style, whereas positive affect was.Many social scientists, politicians, and the media tend to paint a bleak picture for youth living in predominantly Black urban settings in this country (Barbarin, 1993). Poverty, academic failure, early death due to poor health care and violence, drug abuse and addiction, high unemployment rates, teenage pregnancy, gangs, and high crime rates are some of the conditions highlighted to describe the

Engagement happens when academics and nonacademics form partnerships to create mutual understanding, and then take action together.

Stimulated by experiences associated with the Kellogg Foundation's &dquo;Leadership for Institutional Change&dquo; (LINC) initiative, the authors argue for expanding the conventional notion of leadership required for higher education change. In addition to competently envisioning, organizing, and enacting change, we believe that change agents must become more familiar with the philosophical and scholarly traditions associated with the substance of intended change. We make our case by considering two contemporary change platforms in American higher education: the shift from teaching to learning in undergraduate education, and the quest to make colleges and universities more &dquo;engaged&dquo; (with society) institutions. Understanding the Academy as a tapestry of scholarly traditions-with distinct philosophical roots and conceptual frames of reference-night stimulate more academic change agents to reframe leadership and change in postmodern terms. Doing that will offer change platforms that are more embracing than declarative, more inviting than directive, and more connecting than restrictive.

No abstract

No abstract