This report explores the connections among diversity, democratic aspirations and goals for student learning in higher education contrasting old ways of thinking and habits with new alternatives. The introduction discusses how the "special" programs and emerging fields, such as American Indian Studies and Deaf Studies, influence university culture and academic disciplines. An introductory chapter introduces principles of the "new academy." Chapter 1 considers reconfiguring knowledge and reexamining old traditions, such as the Greco-Roman and the Euro-American traditions, in the context of the new inclusive educational commitment. Chapter 2 discusses translation across cultural barriers to effect greater commonality without requiring homogenization. Chapter 3 addresses principles of inclusive thinking contrasting assumptions of: the universal/particular, timeless/historical, central/marginal, human/kind of human/ and individual/community. Chapter 4 discusses renewal of educational commitments and discusses: grounded selves, relational pluralism, contextualizing and historicizing knowers and knowledge, mutually respectful dialogues among cultures, and fully participatory democracies. The concluding chapter emphasizes that liberal learning at this time in history is challenged to help people learn how to use their resources to cross boundaries dividing diverse groups. (Contains 41 references.) (CK)