Register now to receive the pre-conference rate for AAC&U's Annual Meeting: "The Courage to Question: Liberal Education in the 21st Century." The meeting, which will be held in Seattle, Washington, from January 22-25, 2003, will be held in conjunction with the American Conference for Academic Deans. Conference highlights include Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education on "The Challenge of Liberal Education: Questioning the Past, the Present, and the Future" and "Rethinking American History in the Post 9/11 World," presented by Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. For details and a schedule click here.

At its October meeting, AAC&U's board of directors approved a new strategic plan that will guide AAC&U's work for the next five years. To see highlights from the plan, "A New Vision for Learning" that outlines the mission, vision, goals, and priorities of the 87-year-old association, visit /www.aacu.org/about/strategic_plan.cfm.

DiversityWeb Features New Resources and a New Look

DiversityWeb, an interactive resource hub for higher education, has been redesigned for better navigation and an updated look. The site includes valuable resources and information on diversity innovations, research trends, and diversity postings. Previously hosted in collaboration with the University of Maryland, AAC&U now hosts and maintains the entire site as part of aacu.org.

DiversityWeb also features Diversity Digest on the topic of faculty involvement. The issue covers the latest diversity news and resources, and articles on "teaching across difference" at the University of Colorado, Boulder, the "cultural breadth" requirement at Santa Ana College, and service and diversity courses at Pacific Lutheran College. To viewDiversity Digest, visit http://www.diversityweb.org/Digest/. To visit the redesigned DiversityWeb, visit www.DiversityWeb.org.

Peer Review Debuts Online Forum with New Issue
on Contingent Faculty and Student Learning

The newest issue of Peer Review explores issues and trends associated with the increasing use of part-time and full-time non-tenure track faculty. In particular, the focus is on the impact of these trends on the quality of students' educational experiences. This issue also marks the debut of a new online discussion forum, where readers may respond to articles in the current issue or share opinions on this topic. To learn more about this issue of Peer Review or to join the online discussion, visit www.aacu.org/peerreview.

The concerns about academic labor in this issue resonate with the new issue of Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor which is now online and includes a section on "Organizing the Family," edited by AAC&U's Web Editor Noreen O'Connor. This section aims to address some of the many questions facing academic workers who have significant family commitments. To have your say and see what your colleagues are saying about contingent faculty and student learning, visit http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/online_forum.cfm,
and to view the latest issue of Workplace, visit http://www.louisville.edu/journal/workplace/issue5p1/5p1.html.

These issues will also be featured at a special session at AAC&U's upcoming annual meeting sponsored by the Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW). For more information, visit www.aacu.org/meetings/annual.cfm.

Greater Expectations Institute Is Scheduled
for Summer in Denver

The Greater Expectations Institute: Campus Leadership for Student Engagement, Inclusion, and Achievement is scheduled for June 25-29, 2003 in Denver, Colorado. To join in the work of creating and sustaining an invigorated liberal education as envisioned in the AAC&U Greater Expectations report, apply to send a team to the Greater Expectations Institute. The Institute is designed for campuses that are already working to strengthen student engagement, create an inclusive environment, and support high achievement in college. Campus leadership teams come to the Institute with a specific project on which they will work to enrich their campus efforts during the 4-day program. Institute applications will be available online by January 1, 2003. For more information, contact Siah Annand at annand@aacu.org.

Cooper Testifies Before Virginia Commission on Diversity

Michelle Asha Cooper of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives testified before the Virginia State Legislature's Commission on Access and Diversity in Higher Education on November 14. The Commission is examining the under-representation of faculty of color in Virginia and are interested in identifying ways that the legislature can influence policymaking to increase minority representation.

Cooper's testimony discussed the benefits of a diverse faculty, current hiring patterns, and recommendations for increasing faculty diversity. AAC&U has done much work in the area of faculty diversity and has recently published Diversifying the Faculty: A Guidebook for Search Committees, which offers strategies for achieving faculty diversity.

Irvine Campus Diversity Initiative Evaluation Project Resource Kit Now Available

A collection of assessment templates and evaluation tools are now available to help campuses design evaluation plans to measure the success of their diversity initiatives. This Resource Kit was created as part of the James Irvine Foundation's Campus Diversity Initiative (CDI) Evaluation project, and is available in a pdf format.

As part of AAC&U's Presidents' Campaign for the Advancement of Liberal Learning, (CALL), three campus-community dialogues were held in November. Dialogues were hosted by Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey (October 31), Butler University and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in Indianapolis, Indiana, (November 7) and The University of Southern California in Los Angeles (November 14th).

More than 100 institutions and 1,000 individuals have now been involved in eight dialogues since late September. The Dialogues bring together members of the academic, business, school and civic communities to discuss the learning students need to live and work in our diverse democracy in the 21st century.

A number of institutions are planning Dialogues for the spring semester, including the University of Michigan, Northern Arizona University, San Francisco State University (with Mills College and Santa Clara University), Miami University, the University of South Dakota, and Park University.

Closing Plenary Speech for Diversity and Learning
Now Available Online

The text from the closing plenary from AAC&U's recent Diversity and Learning Conference is now online. In "Diversity at the Crossroads: Mapping Our Work in the Years Ahead," AAC&U Senior Fellow Edgar Beckham delves into the historical use of the term "diversity" in America since the 60s, and articulates the difference between an inclusive and exclusive use of the term diversity. To view the speech, visit www.aacu.org/meetings/diversityandlearning/dl2002/beckham_crossroads.cfm.
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Dr. Sue Morra, AAC&U Faculty Fellow Intern is spending her fall semester working in Washington, DC at the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE). Dr. Morra, associate professor of biology at St. Francis University in Pennsylvania spends four days a week at CORE working on the Census of Marine Life initiative and also with the National Ocean Sciences Bowl. The Faculty Fellow Internship program is sponsored by the Institute for Experiential Learning (IEL) in cooperation with the Association of American Colleges and Universities. For more information about the program, visit www.ielnet.org/.

Greater Expectations:
A New Vision for Learning
as a Nation Goes to College

www.greaterexpections.org

The Courage to Question: Liberal Education in the 21st Century, AAC&U's 89th Annual Meeting will be held January 22-25, 2003, in Seattle, Washington. A pre-conference symposium, Shared Futures: Diversity, Inequality, and the Challenge of Global Citizenship is also planned. http://www.aacu.org/
meetings/annual.cfm.

General Education: Goals, Strategies, and Assessments for Powerful Learning will be held
February 27-March 1, 2003. Please visit www.aacu.org/meetings/gened2003.cfm for more information.

Learning Communities: Research Informing Practice will take place in Phoenix from April 10-12, 2003. For more information, visit www.aacu.org/meetings/lc2003.cfm.

For more information on meetings, visit www.aacu.org/meetings/index.cfm.