AAC&U News |April 2004

AAC&U officers and staff regularly travel throughout the country, and occasionally the world, to speak and consult at AAC&U member schools through seminars, institutes, and workshops as well as in more informal gatherings.AAC&U staff also regularly speak on the value of liberal education at various media and public affairs events. These meetings are an opportunity for the membership to influence the direction of AAC&U's initiatives. We look forward to seeing you the next time we are on your campus.

On March 25, Alma Clayton-Pedersen, vice president for Education and Institutional Renewal, attended the Visiting (Fulbright) Scholar Conference of the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, where she presented and moderated a panel on selective admissions and the persistent impact of past discrimination. On March 29, she co-presented a session on “Challenges Confronting Academic and Student Affairs” with Gwendolyn Dungy, executive director of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), at NASPA’s annual meeting.

On March 29, David Tritelli, AAC&U associate editor, attended a meeting held by the National Commission on Writing in America’s Schools and Colleges in Washington, DC. The commission is seeking advice on the best ways to implement the recommendations of its report, The Neglected R: The Need for a Writing Revolution.

Andrea Leskes, vice president for Education and Quality Initiatives, will travel to St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia on April 6 to speak about Greater Expectations in relation to curriculum and general education. On April 17 she will give the closing plenary at the meeting of the Quality in Undergraduate Education project in Denver. She will visit St. Mary’s University in San Antonio on April 26 and 27, where she will serve on the SACS accreditation team; the university is shaping its Quality Enhancement Plan around the ideas in the Greater Expectations report.

Bridget Puzon, editor of Liberal Education, spent the month of March on a professional development leave at the Library of Congress, to learn oral history. She reviewed tapes and conducted interviews for the Veterans History Project (VHP) of the Folklife Center. The Veterans History Project is gathering manuscripts, taped interviews, letters, and photographs from veterans who served in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War. Currently, the VHP also is preparing for "Tribute to a Generation," an event that will be held on the Mall in conjunction with the dedication of the World War II Memorial.

On April 19, Bridget Puzon will speak to the faculty at Iona College in New York on the current higher education initiatives regarding spirituality on campus.