Pedagogies of Engagement Early Conference Rate Ends March 31

"Pedagogies of Engagement: Deepening Learning In and Across the Disciplines," an AAC&U Network for Academic Renewal conference, will take place April 14-16 in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. The conference will explore enduring and emerging practices to increase students' engagement in their learning. Keynote and plenary speakers, including Jose Mestre (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Alicia Juarrero (Prince George's Community College), Valerie Purdie-Vaughns (Yale University), and Randy Bass (Georgetown University), will discuss what it might mean to foster a culture of learning and engagement from a variety of perspectives. Make your reservations soon--the discounted hotel rate will end on March 23 or earlier if the AAC&U room block is sold out. The discounted conference rate ends March 31, but registration will continue until the conference ends.

Application Deadline for 5th Annual Greater Expectations Institute Approaching

AAC&U invites applications to the 5th annual Greater Expectations Institute, "Campus Leadership for Student Engagement, Inclusion, and Achievement," to be held June 22-26 in Burlington, Vermont. Campus leadership teams come to the institute to advance a specific educational change project related to the engagement, inclusion, and high achievement of all students. Teams will confer with expert faculty, refine planning and processes, clarify outcomes, and develop a concrete plan for campus action. The deadline for applications is March 15.

Webcast Series Explores Technology and General Education

AAC&U and the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Group invite individuals and campus teams to participate in "Greater Expectations for 21st-Century Learning," a series of Webcasts focused on technology and general education. The series will address whether advances in the uses of computing and the Internet have implications for what students should learn in college and whether computing opens new opportunities for improving general education. The next Webcast in the series, "Inquiry across the Curriculum," will take place March 31; the other Webcasts, "Learning about Other Cultures" and "Integrative Learning and Electronic Portfolios," will be held April 25 and May 12, respectively. Information about the Webcasts is available on AAC&U's Web site.

AAC&U Invites Proposals for Conference on Civic Engagement

AAC&U is now accepting proposals for "The Civic Engagement Imperative: Student Learning and the Public Good," a Network for Academic Renewal conference to be held November 10-12, 2005, in Providence, Rhode Island. The conference will seek to advance student learning and the public good by clarifying definitions and outcomes for civic engagement, exploring new scholarship on coherent and effective civic engagement programs across the curriculum and cocurriculum, and considering innovative collaborations between educational and community leaders. Proposals for meeting sessions may be submitted online through April 18.

AAC&U Releases Findings from Student Focus Groups as Part of LEAP Advocacy Campaign

As part of its advocacy and campus-action campaign, Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP), AAC&U has released findings from a set of focus groups it commissioned with prospective and current college students in Indiana, Virginia, and Oregon. These findings suggest a possible serious disconnect between what business and academic leaders believe are the most important outcomes of a college education and what students believe is important to get out of college. The findings also include information about student attitudes toward liberal and general education. AAC&U has posted a focus group discussion guide and is encouraging members to conduct their own campus focus groups and share findings with the AAC&U staff. Visit AAC&U's Web site for additional information on LEAP.

New Issue of On Campus With Women Examines Student Resistance to Challenging Ideas

The current double issue of On Campus With Women examines how student resistance to new ideas and perspectives--an expected dimension of intellectual development--can actually offer educators an opportunity to deepen student learning. However, sometimes resistance, especially in a classroom setting, falls disproportionately upon the newly represented faculty, testing their authority and calling for larger institutional policies and cultural shifts. Articles in this issue discuss strategies for addressing these needs and ways of productively engaging student resistance.

Collegiate Learning Assessment Project Seeks Participants

The Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) project (highlighted in AAC&U's Winter/Spring 2002 Peer Review) is seeking twenty-five campuses to participate in a four-year longitudinal study to assess important aspects of liberal learning (critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and writing) that AAC&U has called for in our Greater Expectations initiative and in our recent statement, Our Students' Best Work: A Framework for Accountability Worthy of Our Mission. This project is run by the Council for Aid to Education (CAE) and is part of the Lumina Assessment Project. For further
information about how to participate, visit the CAE Web site.

Washington Internship Institute and AAC&U Appoint Spring Faculty Fellows

The Washington Internship Institute (WII) and AAC&U have appointed Judy Krutky, Regina Turner, and Bernice Bass de Martinez as faculty fellows for the spring semester. Krutky, a professor of political science and international studies at Baldwin-Wallace College, and Martinez, a professor of teacher education on special assignment to the president at California State University, Sacramento, both are working in AAC&U's Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives. Turner, an associate professor of communication studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, will be interning at Ford's Theatre. More information about the Faculty Fellows Internship Program is available on WII's Web site; a press release announcing the appointments is also online.

General Education and the Assessment Reform Agenda
A new Academy in Transition paper by national assessment expert Peter Ewell

Integrative Learning: Mapping the Terrain
A new Academy in Transition paper by Mary Taylor Huber and Pat Hutchings, published jointly by AAC&U and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Network for Academic Renewal Conferences:

Pedagogies of Engagement: Deepening Learning In and Across the Disciplines will take place April 14-16, 2005, in Bethesda, Maryland

The Civic Engagement Imperative: Student Learning and the Public Good will take place November 10-12, 2005, in Providence, Rhode Island

Summer Institutes:

The Institute on General Education will be held May 20-25, 2005, in Newport, Rhode Island

The Greater Expectations Institute: Campus Leadership for Inclusion, Engagement, and Achievement will be held June 22-26, 2005, in Burlington, Vermont

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