Undergraduate Education

* Re “An Academic Bill of Rights,” April 29: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is right to identify undergraduate education as a key priority for America’s research universities.

But the foundation’s latest report on this subject presents a distorted picture because it gives short shrift to the many steps that have been taken in recent years to strengthen undergraduate education on research university campuses. For example, the foundation is way behind the curve in urging research universities to “[involve] undergraduates in the research process.” Programs to do exactly this have proliferated over the past decade, and one would be hard pressed today to find a major research university that does not offer undergraduates a rich variety of research experiences, including the opportunity to work with senior faculty.

The steps that have been taken to strengthen undergraduate education are no secret; they have been publicized widely within the academic community, and information about them is readily available.

Certainly, there is much more that can be done to strengthen undergraduate education at the nation’s research universities. But the current picture is much brighter than the Carnegie Foundation would have it.

CORNELIUS J. PINGS

President, Assn. of American

Universities, Washington