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.

AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider gave a presentation, "Liberal Education and Today's Students," to faculty and administrators from Baldwin Wallace College at an annual faculty retreat on January 5. Carol Geary Schneider and Senior Vice President Caryn McTighe Musil attended a meeting of the Political Engagement Project at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching from January 8 to 11.

Andrea Leskes, AAC&U vice president for education and quality initiatives, gave a presentation titled "Intentional General Education for the 21st Century" at Eastern Connecticut State University on January 20. On February 28, she will speak at a special conference at Georgetown University entitled "The United States, UNESCO and Education for All: Calling Higher Education to a Higher Calling. " The conference celebrates the recent U.S. reentry into UNESCO. In San Francisco on January 25 and 26, Andrea Leskes and Ross Miller, director of programs for AAC&U's Office of Education and Quality Initiatives, attended one of one of two annual convenings of the Integrative Learning Project jointly sponsored with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Alma Clayton-Pedersen, AAC&U vice president for education and institutional renewal, presented a session on Making Excellence Inclusive at the Alliance for Graduate Education in Mississippi 2005 Winter Symposium on January 21. On January 24 she visited Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, to facilitate a session with students and faculty on how they can tap the inherent learning potential of a diverse campus environment. She also consulted with faculty and administrators on the formation of their university-wide diversity committee. On February 7 she presented a plenary session, "Achieving Greater Expectations by Making Excellence Inclusive," at the 24th Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience in Phoenix, Arizona.

Debra Humphreys, AAC&U vice president for communications and public affairs, presented at a luncheon plenary on accountability and student learning outcomes at the annual meeting of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. The session covered various approaches to assessment and accountability, including the approach suggested in AAC&U's board-approved statement Our Students' Best Work: A Framework for Accountability Worthy of Our Mission.

Esther Merves, AAC&U's Membership Director, visited Kent State University in December. She met with Stephane Booth, associate provost for academic quality improvement, Laura Davis, associate provost of planning and academic resource management, Steve Michael, vice provost of diversity and academic initiatives, and Provost Paul Gaston to share information regarding upcoming AAC&U projects and to learn about their current diversity and assessment initiatives.