Partnerships

AAC&U currently partners with the following organizations on projects that advance liberal education. Through funded projects and sponsored meetings, AAC&U also has robust relationships with hundreds of campuses, dozens of foundations and governmental agencies, and additional partner organizations.

American Conference of Academic Deans
The American Conference of Academic Deans (ACAD) was founded in 1945 as a national organization for deans from institutions belonging to AAC&U, which, at that time, was called the Association of American Colleges. Although membership in ACAD is now open to all academic officers, the historic affiliation between AAC&U and ACAD continues through mutual commitment to fostering liberal education, and through cosponsorship of annual meetings and other collaborative programs.

The Aspen Institute
AAC&U and the Aspen Institute cosponsor the Wye Faculty Seminar: Citizenship in the American Polity. Each summer, this week-long seminar on key themes and texts in U.S. and Western democracy is held at the Wye Plantation on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The seminar themes include the scope and limits of government; unity and plurality; dissent and civil disobedience; and education for the polity. For additional information, contact Charlene Costello at Charlene.Costello@aspeninstitute.org.

Campus Women Lead
Campus Women Lead, formerly the National Initiative for Women in Higher Education, is an affiliate of the AAC&U Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives dedicated to honoring, strengthening, and mobilizing the leadership of women in support of inclusive excellence and the New Academy. Through development of a model for inclusive transformational leadership, Campus Women Lead seeks to create an academy in which women of many communities work together in multicultural alliances, and women in all positions of the academy are empowered to lead.

Coalition on the Academic Workforce
Along with other learned societies and disciplinary organizations in the humanities and social sciences, AAC&U participates in the Coalition on the Academic Workforce. Established in 1997, the coalition works on issues related to part-time and contingent faculty.

The Democracy Commitment
AAC&U is a contributing partner in the Democracy Commitment initiative. The Democracy Commitment is a national initiative that will provide a national platform for the development and expansion of programs and projects aiming at engaging community college students in civic learning and democratic practice. The goal of the partnership is that every graduate of an American community college shall have had an education in democracy. This includes all of our students, whether they aim to transfer to university, achieve an associate degree or obtain a certificate.

Excelencia in Education
AAC&U has signed on to the Latino College Completion campaign launched by Excelencia in 2010 to collaborate to improve public policy and institutional practice to increase Latino student success to meet our country’s college completion goals.  Through multiple projects and campaigns, Excelencia in Education aims to accelerate higher education success for Latino students by providing data-driven analysis of the educational status of Latino students and by promoting education policies and institutional practices that support their academic achievement.

The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce
The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce is an independent, nonprofit research and policy institute that studies the link between education, career qualifications, and workforce demands. The Center’s director, Anthony Carnevale, also serves on the National Leadership Council for AAC&U's LEAP initiative.

National Gallery of Writing
An initiative of the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Gallery of Writing is a Web site where people who perhaps have never thought of themselves as writers—mothers, bus drivers, fathers, veterans, nurses, firefighters, sanitation workers, stockbrokers—select and post one thing they have written that is important to them. The gallery features several types of display spaces that can accommodate any composition format and all types of writing. As a National Partner participating in this initiative, AAC&U hosts its own gallery focused on the meaning of liberal education in the twenty-first century.

National Humanities Alliance (NHA)
AAC&U is a founding member of the NHA—a coalition of more than eighty associations concerned with national humanities policy—and AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider serves on its board of directors. The NHA advocates for support for humanities research and represents its members in matters of policy or legislation affecting work in the humanities. NHA is the only organization that represents the U.S. humanities community as a whole.

National Institute for Learning Outcome Assessment
The overarching goal of The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) is to facilitate the dissemination and adoption of promising practices in the assessment of college learning outcomes. The Coalition's focus is on helping institutions use assessment date internally to inform and strengthen undergraduate education and externally in communication with external stakeholders―families and students, policy makers, accrediting groups, and others. Led by George Kuh (Indiana University) and Stan Ikenberry (University of Illinois), NILOA is guided by a National Advisory Panel, of which the AAC&U president is a member. NILOA is supported by the Lumina Foundation, the Teagle Foundation, and other funders.

New Leadership Alliance for Student Learning and Assessment
The New Leadership Alliance for Student Learning and Assessment is being designed to build a networking organization to encourage greater assessment and accountability in higher education to improve student learning outcomes. Funded by the Teagle Foundation, initial leadership for the New Leadership Alliance is being provided by David Paris, who also serves as a senior fellow at AAC&U and a senior advisor at the Council of Independent Colleges.

Pathways to College Network
Pathways to College Network is a coalition of thirty organizations and fifteen foundations promoting college access and high achievement for underserved students, including low-income students, underrepresented minority students, students with disabilities, and first-generation college-going students. AAC&U is the lead partner for the eleven-member College Access and Success Working Group. This group aims to help postsecondary education leaders engage their entire campus community in translating "what works" for underserved student success into comprehensive educational practice.

Washington Internship Institute (WII)
AAC&U cooperates with WII on the Faculty Fellows Internship Program. Through professional internship opportunities, the Faculty Fellows Internship Program enables college and university faculty to broaden their professional, disciplinary, and personal horizons by working for one semester in Washington, DC. Fellows are immersed in a professional environment, such as a government agency, nonprofit organization, national association, museum, or foundation.