As an another example, Mr. Mills cited Mount Vernon's initiative last year to spur students to read.
She says it can help colleagues catch things they have overlooked, hear from shy students and spur students to reflect on their learning.
As it weighed how to address those challenges, one of the nation's pre-eminent universities suddenly and unexpectedly forced out a popular leader after two years and with little explanation, spurring students, faculty members, administrators and alumni to unite in her defense, demanding that the board reverse itself.
All this should have spurred students from poorer countries to apply to European schools.
All this should have spurred students from poorer countries to apply to European schools.Instead, the countries doing well out of America's closing doors and high costs are Canada and Australia.
Since the shooting — which spurred student organizers to plan Wednesday's nationwide walkout — many have called for stricter gun control, urging retailers to stop selling assault-style rifles and putting pressure on the NRA to support common-sense safety measures.
John B. King, the education commissioner, says the state is certainly going in the wrong direction, but has a plan to spur students' achievement.
The shooting spurred students across the country to demand stronger gun control and school safety measures and has also prompted Florida legislators, some members of Congress, and President Donald Trump to call for arming teachers with guns.
The administrators wondered whether the nation's more serious tone since Sept. 11, combined with a slower economy, would spur more students to consider Webb.
At the country's law schools, some professors say, the ferment has the flavor of the teach-ins of the Vietnam War era, when professors spurred their students to political action.
