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 has been making visits around the country to plan both national and state advocacy efforts for the Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) campaign. Last month she held conversations at Harvard University, with business leaders in Massachusetts, and with Jack Wilson, president of the University of Massachusetts System and a member of the LEAP National Leadership Council. With AAC&U Senior Fellow Robert Shoenberg, President Schneider held a series of LEAP planning sessions with higher education leaders in Virginia. While in Richmond, she also discussed LEAP with Thomas Morris, Virginia’s newly appointed secretary of education. On April 7, Schneider took part in a daylong symposium at Alvernia College on the rise of “The New American College” that was held as part of the inauguration of President Thomas F. Flynn. In May, President Schneider will give the commencement address at the College of Wooster and will visit the University of Chicago. She will also attend the Board of Trustees meeting for Mount Holyoke College, where she serves as a trustee.

AAC&U Vice President for Education and Institutional Renewal Alma Clayton-Pedersen co-facilitated a session entitled “Campus Diversity: Busting Myths, Building Capacity” with Claremont Graduate University’s Daryl G. Smith at the annual meeting of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges on April 13. On May 5, Clayton-Pedersen will attend the University of Denver’s fifth annual Diversity Summit, where she will facilitate a discussion linking AAC&U’s Greater Expectations recommendations with work being conducted on inclusive excellence. On May 15, she will participate in the Course Validation Panels for the College Board Advanced Placement Best Practices Course Study in Arlington, Virginia. Clayton-Pedersen and José Moreno of California State University–Long Beach will present the findings of a James Irvine Foundation research brief, “Unknown" Students on College Campuses: An Exploratory Analysis, on May 18 at the Association for Institutional Research annual forum. She will travel to Coppin State University on May 25 to deliver the keynote address at the school’s second annual technology conference.