| Register Now for AAC&U’s Annual Meeting
AAC&U’s 2009 Annual Meeting—Ready or Not: Global Challenges, College Learning, and America’s Promise—will be held January 21-24, 2009, at the Sheraton Hotel in Seattle, Washington. Speakers include Molly Corbett Broad of ACE; Melissa Harris-Lacewell of Princeton University; Eric Liu of the New America Foundation; Peter Sacks, author of Tearing Down the Gates; Stanley Katz of Princeton University; George D. Kuh of Indiana University; K. Patricia Cross of University of California-Berkeley; Judy Touchton of WomenLeadersMove.com; and Ronald Williams of the College Board. Mimi Gardner Gates of the Seattle Art Museum will deliver the American Conference of Academic Deans keynote, and Stephanie Pfirman of Barnard College is the keynote speaker for the Pre-Meeting Symposium, Sustainability: Place, Responsibilities, and the Curriculum. More information is available now; “early bird" registration ends on November 21, 2008.
Sign Up for November Meeting on “Engaging Science, Advancing Learning”
Early registration rates are available through October 15 for AAC&U’s Network for Academic Renewal meeting Engaging Science, Advancing Learning: General Education, Majors, and the New Global Century, (November 6-8, 2008, in Providence, Rhode Island). Participants will discuss ways to accelerate hands-on learning in science, both in general education and in majors—especially reforms that put critical inquiry, undergraduate research, and social responsibility at the center of the educational experience. Hotel details, registration forms, and a preliminary conference program are available online.
Call for Participation in Survey: How Can Undergraduate Science Programs Best Serve Business Students?
In conjunction with “Engaging Science, Advancing Learning,” the AAC&U audience is invited to participate in a survey. Two researchers are seeking AAC&U members’ experience and opinions concerning the curriculum and pedagogy most appropriate for undergraduate students who take science courses as part of the general education requirement for a business degree. Registrants of the Providence meeting can also attend a discussion with the researchers on how undergraduate science programs can best serve the needs of these students. The survey is online now. Please respond by October 31, 2008.
New Discussion Guide Available to Accompany Peer Review Issue on Student Political Engagement
The Democracy Imperative (TDI) has developed a discussion guide for campuses to use in conjunction with the Spring/Summer 2008 issue of Peer Review on student political engagement. Written by Nancy L. Thomas, acting TDI director and an author for the Peer Review issue, the guide was created for multiple uses―as a classroom teaching tool, a faculty development instrument, for use in strategic planning processes, and as a means to engage trustees in a discussion about the aims of higher education. The guide, Democratic and Political Learning, can be downloaded as a PDF from the TDI Web site.
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New LEAP Report by George Kuh Presents Latest Research on High-Impact Practices |
AAC&U has released a new report for its LEAP initiative. High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter, by George D.Kuh, with an introduction by AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider, defines a set of educational practices and describes research on why they have a strong impact on student success. Kuh presents data from the National Survey of Student Engagement about these practices and why they benefit all students, but also seem to benefit underserved students even more than their more-advantaged peers. The publication also presents data that show definitively that underserved students are the least likely students, on average, to have access to many of these practices. High-Impact Educational Practices is required reading for anyone working to advance changes in curricula and teaching practices and increase students’ achievement of key learning outcomes. Purchase a copy or read an excerpt.
POD Network to Offer New Institute at AAC&U’s Annual Meeting
AAC&U is pleased to announce that the Professional & Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education will sponsor a new institute in conjunction with the 2009 Annual Meeting. The institute—Fulfilling the Promise: Using Multicultural Organizational Development to Transform Higher Education Institutions—will be held on Tuesday, January 20, and Wednesday morning, January 21. The POD Network will also sponsor an AAC&U Pre-Meeting workshop Wednesday afternoon on “Strategies for Systematically Improving Teaching and Learning on Your Campus.” More information about the POD Institute and registration materials are available online.
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LEAP Campus Action Network Members Honored with General Education Award |
Miami-Dade College and the University of North Dakota, both members of AAC&U's LEAP Campus Action Network, are winners of the 2008 AGLS Awards for Improving General Education. The awards are given annually by the Association for General and Liberal Studies to recognize creative program accomplishments by general education faculty and administrators committed to ongoing improvement in the areas of general and liberal education. Judges called the process by which UND created and instituted its new “Essential Studies” program, “a creative, non-formulaic review that offers other institutions many transferable examples.” Miami-Dade’s successful effort to focus on a set of ten College Learning Outcomes in its general education program was notable because of the engagement of faculty in the process and the size of this multicampus college of more than 160,000 students. For more information about AGLS, visit its Web site.
Public Health Summary Report, Curriculum Guide Now Available
As part of the Educated Citizen and Public Health initiative, AAC&U and the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research (APTR) have published a summary of recommendations for core courses in undergraduate public health. This publication provides design principles and curricular frameworks for developing undergraduate public health courses that incorporate the learning outcomes essential to a liberal education. The recommendations grow out of two faculty development workshops and a more extensive electronic Curriculum Guide that can be downloaded in PDF format. This initiative seeks to develop undergraduate education in public health as a powerful interdisciplinary component of general education and as a model for the implementation of the LEAP vision of liberal education. Also see a recent Washington Post front-page news story by reporter David Brown highlighting the project.
VALUE Initiative Seeks Volunteers for Problem-Solving Rubric Development Team
AAC&U's VALUE initiative (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education) is developing rubrics for the LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes. We need volunteers willing to work on our problem-solving rubric development team! For more information about volunteering for VALUE rubric development, please e-mail VALUE Initiative Manager Wende Morgaine at morgaine@aacu.org.
AAC&U and the Aspen Institute Announce Wye Seminars for 2009: Citizenship in the American and Global Polity
AAC&U and the Aspen Institute are pleased to announce the 2009 Wye Seminars. The Wye Deans’ Seminar will be held June 14-19, 2009. The Wye Faculty Seminar will be held June 18-24, 2009. The focus of both Wye Seminars will be “Citizenship in the American and Global Polity.” The seminars will address the importance of exchanging ideas with colleagues from other colleges and universities while probing the fundamental values and goals that are the reason for our institutional existence. The seminars will be held the Aspen Wye River campus in Queenstown, Maryland. More information about the Aspen Institute is available online.
ACAD Resource Handbook for Academic Deans Second Edition Available
The American Conference of Academic Deans (ACAD) announces the availability of the second edition of their bestselling publication, The Resource Handbook for Academic Deans. Written “by deans and for deans,” this is an excellent resource for academic administrators of any level. More information and order forms can be found at the ACAD Web site.
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Network for Academic Renewal Conferences:
Engaging Science, Advancing Learning: General Education, Majors, and the New Global Century
Providence, Rhode Island
November 6-8, 2008
General Education, Assessment, and the Learning Students Need,
February 26-28, 2009
Baltimore, Maryland.
Shaping Faculty Roles in a Time of Change: Leadership for Student Learning,
April 2-4, 2009
San Diego, California
Annual Meeting 2009
Ready or Not: Global Challenges, College Learning, and America’s Promise
January 21-24, 2009
Seattle, Washington
For more information on meetings, visit www.aacu.org/meetings
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