For Immediate Release Contact: Barbara K. Laskin
April 27, 2004 Doug Stone
(651) 696-6203

Annual Johnson Memorial Endowed Lecture on
"Spirituality and Higher Learning" at Macalester, Friday, April 30, 2004

St. Paul, Minn. - Alexander W. Astin, the Allan M. Cartter Professor of Higher Education and director of the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, will deliver the 2004 Johnson Memorial Endowed Lecture titled "Spirituality and Higher Learning." Astin's lecture will be on campus at 3:30 p.m., Friday, April 30, Alexander G. Hill Ballroom in Kagin Commons, 1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, Minn. It's free and open to the public.

Astin has served as Director of Research for both the American Council on Education and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. He is the Founding Director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, an ongoing national study of some ten million students, 250,000 faculty and staff, and 1500 higher education institutions. Astin has authored 18 books and some 300 other publications in the field of higher education, and has been a recipient of awards for outstanding research from more than a dozen national associations and professional societies. A 1990 study in the Journal of Higher Education identified Astin as the most frequently-cited author in the field of higher education.

The Johnson Memorial Endowed Lecture is sponsored by the Macalester College Psychology Department, bringing eminent psychology educators/researchers to campus to discuss their work. Previous Johnson lecturers include: Robert M. Sapolsky, professor of biological sciences and neuroscience at Stanford University; Megan Gunnar, professor of child development at the University of Minnesota; Julio Ramirez, professor of psychology at Davidson College and founding president of Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience and Elizabeth Loftus, professor of psychology at the University of Washington and former president of the American Psychological Society.

Macalester is a private liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 1,810 students. Macalester is nationally recognized for its commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, diversity and service to society.

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