Clifton Conrad
Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor
(608) 263-3411
270-J Education Building
1000 Bascom Mall
Madison, WI 53706-1326
Clifton (Clif) Conrad is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Professor of Higher Education. Prior to joining the faculty at UW-Madison in 1987, he served on the faculty at the University of Denver, The College of William and Mary, and the University of Arizona—where he also served as a department chair and as associate dean for academic affairs.
Author or co-author of 15 books and more than 100 other publications, Clif’s research is focused on advancing student learning and persistence in higher education and equal opportunity in higher education. His most recent books include Educating a Diverse Nation: Lessons from Minority-Serving Institutions (Harvard University Press, 2015) and the second edition of Cultivating Inquiry-Driven Learners: A College Education for the 21st Century (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020). Several of his books have been translated and published in university presses in China, including the national study of master’s education–A Silent Success: Master’s Education in the United States—that was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 1993.
A former president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, he served for three decades as an expert witness and consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education in well-known civil rights cases. In two civil rights cases his scholarship and testimony on race and gender have been acknowledged as having an impact on decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court involving race (Fordice) and gender (VMI) in higher education.
Education
- PhD Higher Education, University of Michigan, 1975
- MA Political Science, University of Kansas, 1971
- BA History, University of Kansas, 1969
Select Media Contributions
- Joy Cardin, The Joy Cardin Show - Wisconsin Public Radio, College Student Gradation Rate. (January, 2014). Media Link
- Clifton Conrad, The Louisiana Weekly, Maryland HBCU case has implications for America. (October, 2013). Media Link
Article originally published in The Louisiana Weekly on 10/28/13 - Thomas Metzloff, Voices of American Law. (2010). Media Link
Thomas Metzloff, Professor of Law at Duke University, introduced a Voices of American Law website designed as a resource for law students at Duke and throughout the country who wish to become more familiar with major cases in American constitutional law. Having served as a major witness for the U.S. Justice Dept. and the U.S. Office for Civil Rights for the past 30 years and having been identified as the "star witness" (imagination may be required here) in various writings in the VMI case--one of the two cases that I was very involved in reached the Supreme Court--Professor Thomas Metzloff flew out in 2010 to interview and videotape me. The video has been widely-used in law schools and elsewhere across the nation.
Select Publications
- Conrad, C. F., & Dunek, L. (2020). Cultivating Inquiry-Driven Learners: A College Education for the 21st Century. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Commodore, F., Gasman, M., Conrad, C. F., & Nguyen, T. (2018). Coming Together: A Case Study of Collaboration Between Student Affairs and Faculty at Norfolk State University. Frontiers in Education, 3(39), 1-10.
- Nguyen, T., Nguyen, B., Nguyen, M., Gasman, M., & Conrad, C. F. (2018). From Marginalized to Validated: An In-Depth Study of an Asian American, Native American and Pacific Islander Serving Institution. Review of Higher Education, 41(3), 327-363.
- Lundberg, T., Conrad, C. F., Gasman, M., Nguyen, T., & Commodore, F. (2018). Practices of Remedial Mathematics Students Who Success in College: A Case Study of Developmental Math Education at Chief Dull Knife College. Review of Higher Education, 42(1), 61-101.
- Gasman, M., Nguyen, T., Conrad, C. F., Lundberg, T., & Commodore, F. (2017). Black Male Success in STEM: A Case Study of Morehouse College. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 10(2), 181-200.
- Gasman, M., Nguyen, T., & Conrad, C. F. (2015). Lives Intertwined: A Primer on the History and Emergence of Minority Serving Institutions. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 8(2), 120-138.
- Conrad, C. F., & Gasman, M. (2015). Educating a Diverse Nation: Lessons from Minority-Serving Institutions. (pp. 295). Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England: Harvard University Press.
Select Presentations
- Nguyen, D., Nguten, T., Gasman, M., & Conrad, C. F. Coming Full Circle to Promote Student Success: Case Study of Sac State AANAPISI Program. presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Denver, CO.
- Commodore, F., Abiola, U., Diggs, D., Gasman, M., & Conrad, C. F. A Network of Support: The Role of Collaboration in Fostering Student Success at an HBCU. Paper presented at the Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of The Association for the Study of Higher Education, Washington, D.C..
- Conrad, C. F. A Network of Support: The Role of Collaboration in Fostering Student Success at an HBCU. presented at the Roundtable at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Washington D.C..
- Conrad, C. F. Mis-steps Across the Globe that Threaten the Quality and Value of the Higher Learning. Keynote/Plenary Address presented at the Plenary Speaker at Harvard Conference of the Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- Conrad, C. F., Nguyen, T., Gasman, M., Lundberg, T., & Commodore, F. Morehouse College: Promoting Black Male Success in STEM. presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, St. Louis, Missouri.
- Conrad, C. F. Cultivating Inquiry-Driven Learners. Keynote/Plenary Address presented at the Conference on The University in the Twenty-First Century: Cultivating Inquiry-Driven Students, South Africa.
- Lundberg, T., Conrad, C., Gasman, M., Nguyen, T., & Commodore, F. Redefining the Matriculation of Underprepared Students: The Case of Developmental Math at Chief Dull Knife College. Paper presented at the Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, St. Louis, Missouri.
- Conrad, C. F., & Dunek, L. A. Cultivating Inquiry-Driven Learners: A College Education for the Twenty-First Century. presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Atlanta, Georgia.
- Conrad, C. F. Relationship Between Higher Education Programs and Workforce Needs. presented at the 8th Annual Policy Summit, Cincinnati, Ohio.
- Conrad, C. F., & Dunek, L. A. Cultivating Inquiry-Driven Learners: A College Education for the Twenty-First Century. Conference presented at the Nineteenth International Conference on Learning: The Institute of Education, University of London, London, England.