Nominated by: Lemuel Watson
John Gardner is an educator, university professor and administrator, author, and initiator of the American first-year and senior-year reform movements. He serves as president of the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education (JNGI). Gardner is best known as the initiator of an international reform movement in higher education to call attention to and improve “The First-Year Experience.” Perhaps the most important contribution is his current career capstone push to reduce unacceptable D,W,F,I grades in gateway courses that have a hugely disproportionate impact on students being able to fulfill their dreams and aspirations and on high attrition rates. Almost every university in the U.S. has some form of his idea for the “first-year experience.”
