Acknowledging the growing national need for a well-equipped talent pool from which the scientific, technical, and engineering workforce in the twenty-first century will be drawn, this volume examines ways that trustees, presidents, provosts, and deans can commit to national objectives and translate them into action at the local level. It challenges academic leaders to take immediate and informed action to guarantee undergraduate access to programs of the highest quality that prepare them for life and work in the world beyond the campus.

All undergraduates in these early decades of the twenty-first century need access to robust and engaging learning experiences that provide a deep understanding of the nature of science and the scientific process, alert them to the power and potential of science and technology in their world, make them facile with numbers and data and the use of technologies, and prepare them for responsible citizenship in a world dominated by science and technology. All students, no matter what their background, need access to a research-rich, discovery-based learning environment in which they are motivated to consider a career using scientific and technological capabilities, perhaps as a K-12 teacher, an academic scientist or engineer, or in the high-tech industrial community.

This is the 119th issue in the Jossey-Bass higher education series New Directions for Higher Education.