AAC&U Begins Yearlong Celebration of 90 Years of Leadership for Liberal Education

With the start of the 2004-5 academic year, AAC&U begins a celebration of 90 years of leadership for liberal education. As we enter our 90th year, AAC&U is moving vigorously forward with efforts to better prepare all students for an era of greater expectations by ensuring that every student--including those from traditionally underserved groups--benefits from a strong liberal education. Acknowledging our history and looking forward to our centennial, AAC&U will engage our members and the public in a discussion about how to make liberal education more rigorous, intentional, and inclusive. To celebrate our anniversary, historical photos of member campuses have been added to our homepage and excerpts from past AAC&U publications are being reprinted in our flagship journal, Liberal Education. We will also hold a special celebration at our 90th annual meeting in San Francisco. A timeline of important events in AAC&U's history, and information about our 90th annual meeting, "Liberal Education and the New Academy," are available online.

AAC&U's 2005 Annual Meeting to Explore "Liberal Education and the New Academy"

AAC&U's 2005 Annual Meeting--"Liberal Education and the New Academy: Raising Expectations, Keeping Promises"--will be held January 26-29, 2005, in San Francisco, California. A pre-conference symposium, "Working Convergences: Liberal Education, Creativity, and the Entrepreneurial Spirit," is scheduled for Wednesday, January 26. The opening and closing plenary speakers will be Lee Shulman of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Lani Guinier of the Harvard Law School. The conference will open Wednesday evening with a public forum on "Degrees of Mediocrity, Degrees of Excellence," with discussion led by John Merrow of The Merrow Report, which airs on PBS and NPR.

"Diversity and Learning" Early Registration Discount Ends October 4

Register now for "Diversity and Learning: Democracy's Compelling Interest," a Network for Academic Renewal Conference which will be held October 21-23 in Nashville, Tennessee. Participants at the conference will explore how democracy's compelling interests are tied to educational excellence and consider what the structures, pedagogies, programs, and policies in a truly inclusive academy would look like. Those who register by October 4 will receive a discount and have first choice of workshops; the deadline for discounted room rates for hotel guests is September 29. Registration forms are available on the conference Web pages.

Special Forum on Mentoring and College Access Added to "Diversity and Learning" Agenda

The National Initiative for Women in Higher Education (NIWHE) will sponsor a forum from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. on Friday, October 22, at AAC&U's "Diversity and Learning" conference. Members of the NIWHE Advisory Board, including AAC&U Senior Fellows Judith White and Pat Lowrie, will moderate a discussion about how mentoring can be used to provide access to groups that have been traditionally underserved by higher education. The forum is free, although participants are asked to indicate that they plan to attend on the registration form. Attendees may purchase lunch on site. For more information about the forum or NIWHE, contact Karen Rowan at rowan@aacu.org.

AAC&U to Host Interactive Webcast on Students and Democracy

AAC&U's Center for Liberal Education and Civic Engagement will host an interactive Webcast, "Journey Towards Democracy: Involving Students in the Political Process," from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. EST on September 29. The Webcast will focus on patterns of student political participation, student-driven political organizing, and new technologies that engage students with political issues. Students, faculty, and administrators can register to participate in the discussion for free online. For more information, see the press release announcing the Webcast.

College Student Voting Resources Go Online as Voter Registration Deadlines Approach

Although young Americans have become deeply involved in their communities through volunteer work, they are more disengaged than ever with traditional political life. The impending presidential election provides an opportunity to engage students with and stimulate debate about political involvement. Faculty, administrators, student affairs professionals, and students can explore student voting further by using the resources on college student voting compiled by AAC&U. The state deadlines for registering to vote (often at least thirty days prior to the election) are approaching and can be found on the Federal Election Commission's Web site.

Institute for College-Going Minorities Initiative Focuses on Assessment

This year, the BellSouth Foundation’s College-Going Minorities initiative held a regional institute for seven campuses funded to increase persistence and success of underrepresented students. The institute was held July 28-30 at Trident Technical College, one of the campuses supported by the initiative. Participants gathered in Charleston, South Carolina to share promising practices emerging from their experiences and to learn about assessing and sustaining efforts following the end of the grant funding. AAC&U staff served as consultants for both the development and the implementation of the institute and continue to serve as advisors to the larger initiative.

AAC&U Board of Directors Releases Statement on Accountability, Calls for Assessment of Higher Order Learning Outcomes

The AAC&U board of directors has released a statement presenting a new framework for higher education accountability. The statement, Our Students' Best Work: A Framework for Accountability Worthy of Our Mission, takes a stand for educational excellence and against reductionist assessments. It calls instead for assessments of higher-order learning gains in such areas as critical thinking, integration of knowledge and ideas, and application of knowledge to real-world problems in different disciplinary domains. While critical of some current assessment approaches, the statement embraces the need for greater accountability. It challenges every college and university to assess and publicize its own students' achievement of a small set of key learning outcomes that all college graduates should achieve, regardless of their field of study or choice of institution..

Carnegie Foundation Announces Call for Carnegie Scholars

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning invite faculty members from any discipline or professional field, and from all institutional types, to apply for participation in the 2005-6 Carnegie Scholars Program. AAC&U has a continuing partnership with the Carnegie Foundation--the two organizations are cosponsors of a national initiative on integrative learning and collaborated on the current issue of Peer Review. Applicants for the Carnegie Scholars Program must propose a scholarship of teaching and learning inquiry project that addresses the cohort theme of undergraduate integrative learning. Complete application guidelines can be viewed online; applications must be received electronically by November 15, 2004.

Peer Review Explores the Role of the Disciplines and Doctoral Education in Advancing Liberal Education

Watch your mail for the new issue of Peer Review, which examines the intersections between undergraduate and graduate education and explores the ways in which doctoral education could and should cultivate not just preparation for teaching in liberal arts fields, but new leadership for the larger aims of liberal education. This issue was planned in coordination with the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate, a project of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

New Issue of On Campus With Women Examines Low-Income Women's Access to Higher Education

While rates of enrollment and educational attainment have increased among women in the past thirty years, certain groups, including low-income women and women of color, have been left behind. The spring/summer issue of On Campus With Women examines federal policies that restrict low-income women's access to college and considers structures within higher education that may limit their success. Drawing on the experiences and perspectives of educators, policy analysts, and low-income women themselves, this issue also offers examples of programs and policies that support access to and success in higher education for all women. To read the issue, visit the On Campus With Women Web pages. As of the current issue, the OCWW pages also offer an online feedback form. Future issues will include selected letters from readers.

Liberal Education Subject Index Now Online

Searching for past articles from Liberal Education just got easier--a subject index, which covers more than ten years of the journal and categorizes articles by subject area, has been added to the Liberal Education Web pages. An author index is also available.

Bridget Puzon, Editor of Liberal Education, Retires from AAC&U

Bridget Puzon will retire in October from her position as editor of Liberal Education and director of editorial services at AAC&U. Bridget came to AAC&U from Hollins University in 1991 as a senior fellow in residence; she stayed on to take the helm of Liberal Education. The present standing of Liberal Education is due to Bridget's dedicated and thoughtful leadership. When Bridget leaves AAC&U, she will return to her hometown of New Rochelle, New York, and to her province (the Eastern Province of the Order of St. Ursula), where she will work as director of advancement.

Our Students' Best Work: A Framework for Accountability Worthy of Our Mission
A Statement from the Board of Directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universties

Taking Responsibility for the Quality of the Baccalaureate Degree
A Report from the Greater Expectations Project on Accreditation and Assessment

Network for Academic Renewal Meetings:

Diversity and Learning: Democracy's Compelling Interest will take place October 21-23, 2004, in Nashville, Tennessee

Educating Intentional Learners: New Connections for Academic and Student Affairs will take place November 11-13, 2004, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

General Education and Assessment: Creating Shared Responsibility for Learning Across the Curriculum will take place February 17-19, 2005,
in Atlanta, Georgia

2005 Annual Meeting:

Liberal Education and the New Academy: Raising Expectations, Keeping Promises will take place January 26-29, 2005, in San Francisco, California

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

.

.