Core Commitments Leadership Consortium Proposal Deadline Approaching

AAC&U’s Core Commitments initiative aims to help campuses test and adopt new ways of deepening students’ personal and social responsibility—their integrity, their sense of ethical obligation to self and to others, and their sense of responsibility as citizens in a diverse democracy and interdependent world. As part of the initiative, AAC&U will select up to twenty campuses to participate in a leadership consortium that will strengthen existing campus practices, develop new models for this work, and administer an institutional inventory designed specifically for the project. The deadline to apply to the leadership consortium is Friday, December 15, 2006, and online applications must be submitted by 5 p.m. EST on that day. Visit the Core Commitments Web page to review the call for proposals and access the online form. A new frequently asked questions section will also help campuses put the finishing touches on proposals.

Annual Meeting Features Symposium on Accountability

Registration continues for AAC&U's 2007 annual meeting, "The Real Test: Liberal Education and Democracy’s Big Questions,” which will be held January 17–20, 2007, in New Orleans. The pre-conference symposium—“The Politics of Accountability: A Real Test for Higher Education”—will feature presentations by David Aday (College of William and Mary), David Caputo (Pace University), Marc Chun (Council for Aid to Education), Judith Eaton (Council for Higher Education Accreditation), Peter Ewell (National Center for Higher Education Management Systems), George Kuh (National Survey of Student Engagement), Michael Nettles (Educational Testing Service), Carol Geary Schneider (AAC&U), David Shulenburger (National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges), Lee Shulman (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching), and Barbara Wright (Western Association of Schools and Colleges).

Register Now for Spring Network for Academic Renewal Conferences

AAC&U will host two Network for Academic Renewal conferences in spring 2007. "General Education and Assessment," scheduled for March 1–3 in Miami, Florida, will focus on coherent general education plans that foster increasingly sophisticated learning outcomes and integrate learning across the disciplines. "The Student as Scholar: Undergraduate Research and Creative Practice," scheduled for April 19–21 in Long Beach, California, will explore the value of student scholarship as a hallmark of engaged undergraduate education. See the conference Web pages for more information about the conferences, including downloadable registration forms. Online registration will be available later this month.

AAC&U to Release New Report at Public Briefing and Leadership Forum

On January 10 at Georgetown University, AAC&U will release a new national report from the National Leadership Council of Liberal Education and America’s Promise, College Learning for the New Global Century. Members of the council and national education, business, and policy leaders will discuss findings and recommendations from the report at a public briefing. They will also present results of new national polls of business leaders and recent graduates that examined the importance of liberal education outcomes in the new global economy. The public briefing will be followed by an invitational leadership forum that will bring educators and employers together to discuss how they can better prepare students for success in this new global century. For information about attending the public briefing, e-mail Debra Humphreys at Humphreys@aacu.org.

AAC&U President Briefs Reporters on Spellings Commission Report’s Impact

On November 17, AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider spoke on the opening panel of the annual seminar for higher education reporters sponsored by the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media. The topic of this year’s seminar was “Access, Affordability, and Accountability—A Turning Point for Higher Education” and the opening panel addressed the impact of the recent report from the Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Schneider joined commission members David Ward (American Council on Education) and Richard Vedder (Ohio University) in a moderated discussion that followed a presentation by U.S. Department of Education official and Deputy Director of the Spellings Commission Victoria Schray. For more information, see AAC&U’s statements responding to the Spellings Commission report.

Faculty Work Conference Podcasts Now Available

“Faculty Work and the New Academy: Emerging Challenges and Evolving Roles,” an AAC&U Network for Academic Renewal conference held last month in Chicago, explored changing faculty roles, responsibilities, and reward systems. In the conference’s keynote address, Lee Shulman urged faculty to see calls for accountability as opportunities to assure that what is measured is worth measuring and to provide transparency to students. This address and other selected sessions from the conference are now available as podcasts. AAC&U will continue to convene meetings on evolving faculty roles throughout the year and will host another Network for Academic Renewal conference on this topic in Savannah, Georgia, November 1–3, 2007. The call for proposals for the conference will be available on the AAC&U Web site in January; e-mail Network@aacu.org for more information.

AAC&U thanks the IDEA Center, Columbia College Chicago, and the American Psychological Association for their generous sponsorship of this year’s Faculty Work conference.

Faculty Set for 2007 Greater Expectations Institute

AAC&U is pleased to announce the faculty for the 2007 Greater Expectations Institute: Campus Leadership for Student Engagement, Inclusion, and Achievement, which will be held June 20–24 in Burlington, Vermont. The institute is a five-day, intensive program designed for colleges and universities working to increase student engagement, inclusion, and achievement. Campus teams apply to the institute with specific educational change projects in mind. Expert faculty help teams clarify their intended outcomes, align their projects with institutional mission and goals, refine their planning and processes, and build a culture of continuous learning through assessment. This year's faculty members are Susan E. Borrego, Alma R. Clayton-Pedersen, L. Dee Fink, Tori Haring-Smith, Sylvia Hurtado, Patricia Iannuzzi, L. Lee Knefelkamp, George Kuh, Judith A. Ramaley, Carol Geary Schneider, Daniel Hiroyuki Teraguchi, Jesús Treviño, Damon A. Williams, and Vera Zdravkovich. An application brochure for the institute will be available beginning in January.

AAC&U to Cosponsor “Uncovering the Heart of Higher Education”

AAC&U is pleased to cosponsor “Uncovering the Heart of Higher Education: Integrative Learning for Compassionate Action in an Interconnected World,” which will be held February 22–25, 2007, in San Francisco. The conference, organized by the Fetzer Institute in partnership with the California Institute of Integral Studies, will address the relationships between curriculum and values; intellectual, aesthetic, and moral intelligences; technical competency and compassionate action; critical reasoning and contemplative inquiry; and vocation and life purpose. Speakers include Alice Walker, Parker Palmer, Robert Kegan, Diana Chapman Walsh, and Alexander and Helen Astin. The deadline for early registration is December 15.

AAC&U Joins Effort to Bridge Public Health Education and Liberal Education

AAC&U is partnering with the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research in an effort to bridge public health education and liberal education. The first fruit of this partnership (pending funding) will be a faculty development project to begin in July 2007. The project is designed to develop undergraduate courses that engage students with the world’s major questions through the lens of public health. Participating institutions will be selected through a national call for participation to be announced in January 2007. For additional information, contact Kevin Hovland at Hovland@aacu.org.

Terrel Rhodes to Represent AAC&U on National Information Literacy Council

Vice President for Quality, Curriculum, and Assessment Terrel Rhodes will represent AAC&U on a council that is developing national standards for information and communication technology (ICT) literacy. The council will determine the number of ICT assessment levels that are desirable and what students should know at each level. It will also create panels to review the core and advanced versions of the new ICT Literacy Assessment developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and determine the “cut points” for student proficiency in each of the performance levels. Further information about the council’s work is available on the ETS Web site.

New Report Examines Philanthropy in Higher Education

AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider spoke on November 16 at an event announcing the release of Reconnecting Education and Foundations: Turning Good Intentions into Educational Capital, a report commissioned by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The outcome of a thirty-month project on which Schneider served as an adviser, the report analyzes philanthropy's important role in American education. It includes a chapter by longtime AAC&U fellow Edgar Beckham entitled “Working through Intermediaries: The New Jersey Campus Diversity Initiative.” More information on this publication is available from Jossey-Bass.

AAC&U Seeks Exemplary Diversity Programs and Practices for New Publication

Campuses are invited to submit descriptions of exemplary diversity programs for possible inclusion in a new monograph to be published in honor of the late Edgar Beckham, a diversity leader and senior fellow at AAC&U. AAC&U wants to identify cutting-edge campus practices that build on what the higher education community has learned over the years about diversity, student learning, and institutional change and set the course for the next generation of diversity work. The deadline for submission is December 11, 2006.

AAC&U Announces Leadership Fund for Liberal Education

AAC&U has developed a fund to receive gift support from individual donors committed to providing leadership for the value and power of a liberal education. The Leadership Fund for Liberal Education has been restricted to the support of AAC&U’s major educational initiatives, and in the first few years will be restricted to the Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) campaign. The fund will provide increased flexibility, allowing support to be directed when it is needed to the major program areas of greatest concern to our members and the field of higher education. Brochures describing the Leadership Fund for Liberal Education will be available at the membership table at future AAC&U meetings. For more information, or to request a brochure, contact Director of Development Candace Kuhta at development@aacu.org or (202) 884-7421. 

New On Campus with Women Focuses on Administrator Pipeline

The latest issue of On Campus with Women explores the administrator pipeline for women. As with the faculty, there has been progress toward gender equity in the administrator pipeline and among women holding mid- and high-level administrative positions. However, significant work remains to be done, both in terms of hiring, promotion, and mentoring and in terms of research. Visit OCWW online to view the full contents of the new issue.

Fall Issue of Peer Review Examines Learning and Technology

The latest issue of Peer Review examines the role and use of technology in student learning and addresses how these technologies can advance liberal education learning outcomes. Articles in the issue cover topics such as the use of technology to advance humanistic ideals, the use of blended learning, and ways of engaging faculty in a technological age.

Purposeful Pathways: Helping Students Achieve Key Learning Outcomes
By Andrea Leskes and Ross Miller

Communicating Commitment to Liberal Education: A Self-Study Guide for Institutions

Making the Case for Liberal Education: Responding to Challenges
By Debra Humphreys

Network for Academic Renewal Conferences:

General Education and Assessment: Engaging Critical Questions, Fostering Critical Learning
March 1–3, 2007
Miami, Florida

The Student as Scholar: Undergraduate Research and Creative Practice
April 19–21, 2007
Long Beach, California

2007 Annual Meeting:

The Real Test: Liberal Education and Democracy’s Big Questions
January 17–20, 2007
New Orleans, Louisiana

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