ABSTRACT
Eastern Kentucky University (EKU), a regional comprehensive university located in Richmond, has an enrollment of about 16,000. Serving a student body from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, many of whom are first-generation college students, EKU offers 168 degree programs, relatively small classes, and more than 200 student organizations. For several years prior to 2003, the director of institutional research, Dr. Foresight, made various attempts to get departments to develop student learning objectives, or desired educational outcomes. Typically the Department of Literature treated Dr. Foresight like a gnat—the buzzing was annoying, but it was fairly easily shooed away. Once all the reasonable objections had been addressed, what remained was a powerful emotional resistance fueled by anger. On a daily basis, faculty in the Department of Literature could be heard complaining in the halls and exploding in the faculty lounge as professors railed against their new bête noir.
