This year, to advance both the scholarly and the educational components of our mission, Higher Education in Review welcomed new participants and reached out to new partners. We focused on establishing a presence in academic departments and professional organizations through panel discussions, conference presentations, and writing workshops. The addition of a Production Team to our organizational structure increased opportunities for graduate students to participate in the work of the journal. Higher Education in Review has already benefitted from these efforts, as submission numbers have reached new a high this year. For example, this sixth volume is the first in which all the published articles, including the invited essay, were written by scholars not affiliated with the Pennsylvania State University.

Also, in a departure from previous volumes, we include an editorial in Volume 6, titled Cultivating Excellence in Academic Writing and Publishing: Our Individual and Collective Responsibilities. This essay highlights three topics through which we encourage readers to reflect on the role of publishing in the scholarly community. These topics include the purpose, ethics, and discourse of academic publishing.

What started in 2004 as a means to help graduate students in Penn State's Higher Education Program learn about the publication process, and only began accepting manuscripts from other programs in 2007, has grown to be national in both content and audience. It is in this ever-expanding context that we present three compelling articles in Volume 6.

In the first article, "Believe You Have a Mission in Life and Steadily Pursue It": Campus YMCAs Presage Student Development Theory, 1894-1930, Nathan F. Alleman and Dorothy E. Finnegan examine hundred-year-old student handbooks to articulate the unique contributions of campus YMCAs in the years preceding a formalized student affairs profession.

In Neoliberalism in the Spellings Report: A Language-in-Use Discourse Analysis, Willis A. Jones argues that a neoliberal philosophy underlies the analysis, interpretation, and recommendations presented in the Spellings Report. Jones concludes by discussing the potential consequences of such an approach to education.

In the concluding essay, Becoming a Writer, we invited Dr. Ann E. Austin to articulate how writing for publication can serve as a powerful mechanism of socialization as students transition through graduate school and into their professional roles in the academy.

Questions of identity permeate Volume 6, both in the substance of the volume and in the editorial processes that preceded its publication. Throughout the 2008-2009 academic year, the Editorial Board of Higher Education in Review faced challenges that led us to reconsider the identity of the journal. Doing so meant reconsidering both individual roles within the journal and the journal's role within the field of higher education. We believe the results of these efforts are a renewed commitment to the core structure and purpose of the journal, as well as to the potential for ongoing growth and improvement. In the editorial, we challenge readers to consider the role that publishing plays in the development of graduate students' and emerging scholars' professional identities. Issues of identity also arise in each of this volume's articles. Alleman and Finnegan challenge readers to reconsider the origins of student development theory, showing how YMCA handbooks' advice columns both paralleled and predated the formal theories of the field's founders. Jones argues that the Spellings report recasts the very purpose of higher education in opposition to its classical liberal foundations. Austin's essay reminds us that our identities as scholars and writers are the result of socialization, and addresses the process by which we become writers.

In reflecting upon the way in which the journal's identity has changed since its inception just five volumes ago, we acknowledge a tremendous debt to all who have helped to develop and enhance it. Neither the organization nor this published volume would be what they are without the dedicated efforts of our Editorial Board, Production Team, and Review Board. The individuals who comprise these groups continue to make professional contributions that far exceed even our most ambitious expectations. In particular, we are grateful to Nate Sorber, David Pérez, and Sarah Fuller for their dedication, expertise, and creativity. We extend our thanks to Dr. Robert Reason for the invaluable advice and support he has provided as the journal's faculty advisor. We also extend our gratitude to the Pennsylvania State University, the Center for the Study of Higher Education, the Higher Education Program, the Education Policy Studies Department, and the Higher Education Student Association for their support in this endeavor.

Finally, we renew the call to faculty members made by Volume 5 editors Jennifer Domagal-Goldman and Betty Harper - please, encourage your students to write for publication. There are many ways in which Higher Education in Review might facilitate such discussions with your students. Assign articles from the journal as class readings, refer students to our Web site for information on the publication process, or collaborate with students to prepare class papers for submission to Higher Education in Review. Most importantly, we ask that you make time to provide substantive feedback on your students' writing and tell them about your own experiences with publishing. We believe that mentoring from faculty members is the single most powerful mechanism for improving the quality of graduate student writing.

Although our time as Editors ends with the publication of this volume, we look forward to observing the ongoing work of Higher Education in Review as the next Editorial Board prepares for Volume 7, under the editorship of Nathan M. Sorber. We are confident that the next volume, and all subsequent volumes, will continue to advance the study and practice of higher education.

Bradley E. Cox and Meghan J. Pifer
Co-Editors