By J.I. Abbot
Welcome to the relaunch of our Action Humanities (AH) community blog. The Action Humanities initiative is a community partnership between and among interested Tunxis faculty; the college Philosophy Club; the Tunxis Alumni Association; Tunxis Library Instructional Technology (LIT); the college chapter of Phi Theta Kappa; and an ever-growing extended community of college students, staff, and interested public and well-wishers.
The initiative and blog have always focused on fostering the life of the College and community involvement, as well as the key role that interdisciplinary connections between and among the humanities and liberal arts and sciences play in capacity building for these areas. That said, “ERGO”—college engagement, retention, graduation, and opportunity after Tunxis—is now our “operating system” and explicit mission—as most experts on college and university retention and graduation agree with Dr. Alexander Astin’s observation in his pivotal 1997 book, What Matters in College that the central determining factors for student success in higher education are “involvement” and “connection.”
By “involvement,” Dr. Astin meant academic/intellectual work and co-curricular activities—and by “connection,” the human side of the bonds students form with fellow students, faculty, staff, and the culture and values of their school.
At Action Humanities, we believe firmly that together we are a great and powerful force for enhancing both involvement and connection through the intellectual, artistic, and social showcasing of student and community talent—as well as through related and ensuing mentoring and job shadowing opportunities that our growing team of successful alumni/ae and other community partners will continue to contribute. As partners, we aim to foster all the elements of ERGO: the gestalt of greater educational success.
We enthusiastically welcome you to join us in this exciting effort.
Works Cited
Astin, Alexander, What Matters in College. New York: Jossey-Bass, 1997.
Voigt, Lydia, and Hundrieser, Jim, “Student Success, Retention, and Graduation: Definitions, Theories, Practices, Patterns, and Trends.” Ruffalo Noel Levitz (RNL), 2018.
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