AAC&U Presents 2012 Frederic W. Ness Book Award to Why Choose the Liberal Arts? by Mark W. Roche
AAC&U announced the winner of its Frederic W. Ness Book Award: Why Choose the Liberal Arts?, published in 2010 by the University of Notre Dame Press. The Ness award is given to a book that best illuminates the goals and practices of a contemporary liberal education, and was formally presented to the author, Mark W. Roche, at AAC&U’s Annual Meeting, held January 25-28, 2012 in Washington, DC. In his book, Mark W. Roche lucidly and passionately argues for the essential value of the liberal arts. He draws on more than thirty years of experience in higher education as a student, faculty member, and administrator, and deftly connects the broad theoretical perspective of educators to the practical needs and questions posed by many students and their parents.
2,000 Educational Leaders Expected in Washington, DC to Explore New Models for Civic Learning, Ways to Ensure that All College Students Receive a Globally Engaged Liberal Education Two thousand educational leaders from around the country—presidents, provosts, deans, and faculty members—will gather in Washington, DC, from January 25-28, 2012, for AAC&U’s Annual Meeting. The meeting, Shared Futures, Difficult Choices: Reclaiming a Democratic Vision for College Learning, Global Engagement, and Success, builds on discussions begun at a January 10 White House Convening. Participants will continue to discuss how colleges and universities can implement recommendations from the newly released report A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future. Developed by the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, this report pushes back against a prevailing national dialogue that limits the mission of higher education primarily to workforce preparation. Speakers and sessions at the meeting will focus on how to make civic, democratic, and global learning pervasive rather than peripheral on today’s college campuses. The meeting will also showcase examples from institutions of all types that are successfully building upon democratic visions and practices in complex, global contexts—visions and practices that shape institutional missions, improve undergraduate education, and challenge narrow definitions of student success. Other sessions will address progress made on assessment and accountability since the release last year of the Degree Qualifications Profile—the new framework for clarifying the meaning of college degrees in the twenty-first century. See the full program and additional information about the meeting online.
LEAP Presidents’ Trust Member Michael Roth Speaks Out on Higher Education’s Role in Addressing Our Civic Recession
In a new blog posting on Huffington Post, Wesleyan President Michael Roth makes the point that “By embracing civic learning and partnerships that strengthen communities, we can do the hard work of restoring confidence in the future. That is a core responsibility of education.” He also describes how college students are engaged in service learning in the US and around the world—for instance, “creating free schools and clean water in Kenya [where] they are using their broadly based education to engage specific and important issues out in the world.” As Roth puts it, these civically engaged college students are “pragmatists steeped in liberal learning.”
The December issue of AAC&U News features Global Learning for Global Citizenship at Florida International University, data from a new survey on “The State of Young America,” and the latest news about AAC&U meetings, projects, and publications. Watch next year for our next issue of AAC&U News.
This report from the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement calls on the nation to reclaim higher education's civic mission. Commissioned by the Department of Education and released at a White House convening in January 2012, the report pushes back against a prevailing national dialogue that limits the mission of higher education to workforce preparation and training while marginalizing disciplines basic to democracy. The Task Force calls on educators and public leaders to advance a twenty-first-century vision of college learning for all students—a vision with civic learning and democratic engagement an expected part of every student's college education. The report is also available to download as a PDF.
In releasing this new edition of The Drama of Diversity and Democracy, the Association of American Colleges and Universities invites higher education to reengage with one of our most foundational questions: the role educators can and should play in building civic capacities—knowledge, skills, commitments, collaborations—for our diverse and globally connected democracy. This edition features a new foreword by Ramón A. Gutiérrez, and a new preface by AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider. The original version of this publication was released in 1995 as part of AAC&U's national initiative American Commitments: Diversity, Democracy, and Liberal Learning.
