Alexander Astin is Allan M. Carter Professor of Higher Education and director of the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. He 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. He is a member of the National Academy of Education and has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and the recipient of ten honorary degrees. Dr. Astins latest book is What Matters in College? Four Critical Years Revisited (1993). His current research focuses on student outcomes; educational policy and reform; the civic role of higher education; and the role of values, consciousness, and spirituality in higher education. Dr. Astin earned a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park.