Alexander W. Astin (May 30, 1932 – May 18, 2022) was the Allan M. Cartter Distinguished

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

of Higher Education and Organizational Change, at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

. He was founding director of the

Higher Education Research Institute The Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) serves as an interdisciplinary center for research, evaluation, information, policy studies, and research training in post-secondary education. HERI is housed in the UCLA Graduate School of Educatio ...

at UCLA. He has served as Director of Research for both the

American Council on Education The American Council on Education (ACE) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) U.S. higher education association established in 1918. ACE's members are the leaders of approximately 1,700 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher educatio ...

and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. He was also the founding director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, an ongoing national study of some fifteen million students, 300,000 faculty and staff, and 1,800 higher education institutions.

Career

Astin received his A.B. degree in Music from

Gettysburg College Gettysburg College is a private liberal arts college in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1832, the campus is adjacent to the Gettysburg Battlefield. Gettysburg College has about 2,600 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women. ...

in 1953 and his

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in Psychology from the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

in 1958. Astin has been director of research for both the American Council on Education (1965–1973) and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (1960–1965). He has authored 23 books and more than 300 other publications in the field of

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after comple ...

, and has been a recipient of awards for outstanding research from more than a dozen national associations and professional societies. He has also been elected to membership in the

National Academy of Education (NAEd) The National Academy of Education (NAEd) is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization in the United States that advances high-quality research to improve education policy and practice. Founded in 1965, the NAEd currently consists of over 300 elect ...

, a fellow at the

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research lab at Stanford University that offers a residential postdoctoral fellowship program for scientists and scholars studying "the five core social and ...

at Stanford University, and a recipient of eleven honorary degrees. A 1990 study in the

Journal of Higher Education ''The Journal of Higher Education'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering higher education. The journal was established in 1930. It is published by Taylor & Francis. Previously, it was published by Ohio State University Press. The ...

identified Astin as the most frequently-cited author in the field of higher education. A 2010 study in the same journal also identified him as the author most cited by others in the field of higher education. In 1985 readers of ''Change'' magazine selected Astin as the person "most admired for creative, insightful thinking" in the field of higher education. His latest book is ''Are You Smart Enough? How Colleges' Obsession with Smartness Shortchanges Students'' (Stylus, 2016).

Personal life and hobbies

Astin was born in Washington, D.C. to the late Margaret Linnie Mackenzie and Allen V. Astin, a physicist and the fifth director of the National Bureau of Standards now the

National Institute of Standards & Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...

. His older brother is actor

John Astin John Allen Astin (born March 30, 1930) is an American actor and director who has appeared in numerous stage, television and film roles. He is best known for starring in '' The Addams Family'' (1964–1966), as patriarch Gomez Addams, reprising ...

(Visiting Professor and Director, Theatre Arts and Studies at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

and Gomez on ''

The Addams Family ''The Addams Family'' is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 unrelated single-panel cartoons, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' over ...

''). Astin married Helen Stavridou on February 11, 1956. They were colleagues at UCLA for 42 years (1973–2015) until Lena's death in October, 2015, and collaborated on many research projects. After retiring from active teaching in 2002, they coauthored a major national study on spirituality in higher education, which became available in book form in 2011. The Astins have two sons, John Alexander (Doctor of Psychology) and Paul Allen (Doctor of Education), and three granddaughters, Erin, Amalia and Ila. He died on May 18, 2022.

References

External links

"Alexander Astin's Theory of Involvement: A Summary"with Alexander Astin
�by Stephen McKiernan, Binghamton University Libraries Center for the Study of the 1960s, October 15, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Astin, Alexander 1932 births 2022 deaths American education writers UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies faculty People from Greater Los Angeles Writers from Washington, D.C. Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences fellows 20th-century American writers 21st-century American writers