After leading UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute at the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSE&IS) for 31 years, founding director Alexander W. Astin, Allan M. Cartter Professor of Higher Education, stepped down as of April 1. The new director, Sylvia Hurtado, recently joined the UCLA faculty and has assumed the leadership of the institute, after serving as director of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan.

Hurtado is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar in the field of higher education. A prolific writer, she has focused her research on issues of diversity and democratic practices in education. Her current scholarly focus is on diverse college students and college preparation for citizenship in a diverse society. She has co-edited “Intergroup Dialogue: Deliberative Democracy in School, College, Community and Workplace� and is currently completing a book on higher learning for citizenship in a diverse democracy.

Hurtado has been honored with the distinguished Early Career Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the H.R. Johnson Diversity Award at the University of Michigan. She was also named by Black Issues in Higher Education as one of the 15 most influential faculty who personifies scholarship, service and integrity, and whose work has had substantial impact in the field.

Hurtado has served on the American Association of Higher Education’s board of directors and the Higher Learning Commission of North Central Accreditation Board, and is currently president-elect of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.

As the new director of the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI), Hurtado brings to this post a wealth of administrative and research experience. In addition to directing Michigan’s higher education program, she has designed national surveys as well as several institutional and classroom-based surveys. Her recent project focused on student cognitive, social and democratic skill development and was funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the Spencer Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation.

Hurtado received her Ph.D. in education from UCLA.

“Sylvia Hurtado brings impressive expertise and energy to GSE&IS. She is an outstanding educator, researcher and leader. I am delighted that she has accepted the
position of director of HERI,� said Aimée Dorr, dean of the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. “She inherits an organization that was created and made preeminent by its founder and sole director, Alexander Astin.�

The Higher Education Research Institute was initially established as an independent research institute in 1973 and became part of UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies in 1980. It is a nationally recognized research center that houses the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, the largest ongoing study of college students in the nation.

The Cooperative Institutional Research Program, which has been monitoring college students’ characteristics, aspirations, attitudes and values on an annual basis since 1966, has surveyed more than 12 million students at more than 1,700 colleges and universities. The primary mission of the program is to assess the impact of college on students’ development by means of longitudinal follow-up surveys of selected student groups.

The Higher Education Research Institute also conducts national surveys of college and university faculty triennially, examining how faculty spend their time, what they value, their pedagogical and classroom practices, and scholarly activities.

Astin will continue to be affiliated with the institute as principal investigator on two major projects: a long-term study of the impact of service learning on the civic engagement and post-college life of former undergraduates, funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies; and, with Professor Helen S. Astin as co-principal investigator, a national study of students’ spiritual development during the undergraduate years, funded by The John Templeton Foundation.

One of 11 professional schools at UCLA, the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies consists of two academic departments, the Department of Education and the Department of Information Studies. The Graduate School of Education was founded in 1939 and was UCLA’s first professional school. The Graduate School of Library Service was founded in 1958. The two schools merged in 1994, forming the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. UCLA is the only major research university in the country that combines departments of education and information studies.

In 2004 U.S. News & World Report ranked the education program third in the nation and first among public universities. GSE&IS shares its findings with practicing educators and information professionals through classes, seminars and workshops offered at UCLA and in the community, and through reports, studies and articles featured in publications nationwide.