ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on communication processes related to undergraduate student reform, a major system-wide innovation. It examines how curricular innovations in general studies programs unfolded at two land-grant research universities with a special focus on how it was also related to structural reforms in two different departments. The narrative approach to communication, itself a metaphor, suggests that compelling stories often are the essential communication tool. Metaphors are particularly important symbolic expressions. As a case study, the chapter focuses on the development of slogan systems related to symbolic innovations at UK during the period when the Top Twenty aspiration was most salient. General education is often the stepchild of higher education, unappreciated by students who want to get on with their major, and fragmented by various political forces both within and without the university, and orphaned by regular faculty who want to focus on their specializations.
