Statements and Letters

Statement of Remembrance for Daniel Schorr, Journalist and Supporter of Liberal Education

July 26, 2010

AAC&U notes with sadness the passing of Daniel Schorr, Emmy award-winning journalist and champion of the academic and journalistic freedom so important to maintaining the vibrancy of a democracy. Celebrated for his courage, his integrity, and his commitment to professional excellence, Schorr has appropriately been lauded elsewhere for his many accomplishments as a journalist. Schorr also played an important role, however, in one of AAC&U’s signature initiatives—our Institute on General Education. Daniel Schorr was the keynote speaker at the very first Institute held in 1991 at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. In that address, he talked of the importance of excellence and integrity in life, in education, and in his own field of journalism—themes that have continued to echo in AAC&U’s own work over these past twenty years. Guy Raz, host of NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered, described on air the experience of being a young assistant to Schorr, noting that he was “a tough boss…doing what all great mentors do…transmitting a lesson…in trust and integrity.”

AAC&U is grateful for Schorr’s contribution to launching AAC&U’s Institute on General Education and Assessment – now in its twentieth year. We also celebrate his commitment to the philosophy of liberal education, and his role as mentor to many young journalists.