Zoom registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IotziJZcQkKmD2rdmWf1xQ
Lecture Description: Colleges and universities are navigating unprecedented pressures—declining enrollment, student disillusionment, growing skepticism about value, and increasing public scrutiny. How can institutions respond not simply with structural reform, but with renewed academic purpose? In this timely webinar, Stephen Miles, Vice Chair of AltLiberalArts and former Provost of New College of Florida, draws on decades of educational innovation to present practical, adaptable strategies that revitalize student learning and strengthen institutional mission. Grounded in the distinctive educational model developed during the early years of New College of Florida, this session introduces five disruptive principles that foster student ownership, deepen engagement, and promote academic excellence across disciplines and institutional types.
The Five Principles:
Student Agency and Responsibility – Empowering students to shape their learning through curiosity, ownership, and accountability.
Mutual Engagement – Cultivating dynamic relationships among faculty, students, peers, and communities beyond the classroom.
Mastery – Building rigor through depth, mentoring, and intellectual resilience.
Depth and Breadth – Aligning interdisciplinary exploration with disciplinary strength.
Assessing for Excellence – Moving beyond compliance-based grading toward meaningful evaluation and growth for both students and faculty.
This session offers students, faculty, and academic leaders a coherent framework for aligning student engagement, faculty development, meaningful assessment, and liberal arts values around student success—without sacrificing rigor or purpose.
Who Should Attend?: Students, provosts, deans, department chairs, faculty leaders, and all who seek principled, mission-driven renewal for the liberal arts.
Dr. Stephen Miles is Vice Chair and a founding board member of AltLiberalArts, a global education initiative dedicated to the principle of freedom to learn and the advancement of the liberal arts. Through its flagship project, Five Disruptive Principles in the Liberal Arts, AltLiberalArts promotes pedagogical approaches that empower students to take full ownership of their education and enable faculty to harness the transformative power of the liberal arts—creating renewed meaning in academic work. Dr. Miles is Professor Emeritus of Music at New College of Florida, where he taught for 32 years and served as Provost from 2011 to 2017. From 1998 until his retirement in 2020, he directed New Music New College, an innovative performance series and interdisciplinary research laboratory exploring the boundaries of contemporary music and academic inquiry.