| Meetings and Institutes
General Education and Assessment Conference Features Keynote by Robert Weisbuch—Register Now
General Education and Assessment: Maintaining Momentum, Achieving New Priorities, a Network for Academic Renewal conference scheduled for February 18-20 in Seattle, Washington, invites fresh thinking and new approaches to help faculty, staff, and administrators maintain momentum in general education and assessment during tough times, and reaffirms a commitment to engaged liberal education as the guiding principle for campus action.The conference will draw on AAC&U’s long-standing projects and publications on general education reform including work to bring diversity, global, and civic learning into general education and models for advancing scientific and quantitative literacy through real-world curricula and problem-based pedagogies. Online registration is now available; take advantage of discounted rates through January 25, 2010.
Integrative Learning Conference in Atlanta—Still Time to Register
There is still time to register to attend Integrative Learning: Addressing the Complexities, October 22-24, 2009, in Atlanta, Georgia. This Network for Academic Renewal conference will investigate how higher education can help students develop a sense of efficacy to tackle the deep and often entrenched problems facing us as individuals and as both local and global communities. Veronica Boix Mansilla of Harvard University will present the keynote address on “Reflections on the Future of Learning,” and featured sessions will focus on shifting institutional cultures to support integrative learning; supporting learning through assessment; and sustaining progress over time. For complete program details, please visit the conference Web site.
U.S. Undersecretary of Education to Speak at AAC&U 2010 Annual Meeting
AAC&U’s Annual Meeting—The Wit, the Will…and the Wallet: Supporting Educational Innovation, Shaping our Global Futures— will be held January 20-23, 2010, in Washington, DC. The opening plenary—“Achieving Ambitious Goals for College Completion AND for the Quality of Learning”—will feature Martha Kanter, U.S. undersecretary of education, Jamie Merisotis of the Lumina Foundation, and Ronald Crutcher, president of Wheaton College. Andrew Delbanco of Columbia University will deliver the ACAD Keynote, “Business as Usual? Higher Education After the Meltdown.” Edward Ayers of the University of Richmond will deliver the final plenary, “For the Common Wealth: A Vision of Liberal Education for the Future.” Ramón Gutiérrez of the University of Chicago will speak at the Networking Luncheon for Faculty and Administrators of Color on “Talking about Race and Ethnicity in a Post Racial America”; and Michelle Asha Cooper of the Institute for Higher Education Policy will present “Investing in Quality: Our Nation’s Best Future” at the Women’s Networking Breakfast. Author Jonah Lehrer will speak at the opening night forum on “How We Decide: The New Science of Decision Making.” More information is available online; early registration discounts are available through November 24, 2009.
Project Kaleidoscope Featured at Annual Meeting
AAC&U’s Annual Meeting will feature a series of presentations on the work of Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL), which—as of January 1, 2010—will officially join forces with AAC&U to advance work on improving undergraduate education in the STEM disciplines. Sessions will include a premeeting workshop on “Transforming Undergraduate STEM Education: Exploring the Dimensions of Leadership” (presented by PKAL Founding Director Jeanne Narum); and featured concurrent sessions on “A Kaleidoscope of Perspectives on Student Learning Goals – STEM & Beyond,” led by incoming PKAL president Susan Elrod; “A Kaleidoscope of Perspectives on Institutional Transformation, STEM & Beyond, ” “Developing Comprehensive Institutional Plans for Success in More Inclusive STEM Undergraduate Education,” and “Engaging Science: What Institutions are Doing to Advance STEM Learning.” More information on the AAC&U/PKAL partnership is available here.
LEAP
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LEAP Campus Action Network Offers Workshops and Resources for Education Reform Efforts |
The LEAP Campus Action Network (CAN) offers invitational workshops at each AAC&U Network for Academic Renewal (NAR) conference highlighting promising practices at LEAP CAN schools and ways to use the LEAP vision, framework, and resources to strengthen campus curricular change efforts and advance the goals of liberal education. Resources from the spring CAN workshops are available online. These materials illustrate how campuses are approaching educational reform through a focus on the LEAP essential learning outcomes. Learn more about the benefits of LEAP CAN and ways to get involved.
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Compass Project Leaders Focus on Remapping General Education, Designing Assessments |
Leaders from the California State University system working on AAC&U’s project, Give Students a Compass : A Multi-State Partnership for College Learning, General Education, and Underserved Student Success , met at California State University-Chico on September 14 and 15 to discuss progress and plan the work of the academic year. Colleagues from San José State, Sacramento State, and Chico State joined AAC&U senior staff and advisers at the meeting. The Compass Project is working with campuses in the California State University system, the Oregon University system, and the University of Wisconsin system to remap general education, take new approaches to program design and assessment, and concentrate attention on the success of students from underserved groups. The project is part of AAC&U’s LEAP campaign and Making Excellence Inclusive initiative.
Project Highlights
New Report on Campus Climate for Civic Learning and Engagement
How well is the academy meeting its civic purpose today? The first of three reports from AAC&U’s Core Commitments initiative attempts to answer this question. Civic Responsibility: What Is the Campus Climate for Learning? provides insights about the civic commitments and practices of today’s colleges and universities and draws on data from a unique campus climate assessment tool administered to 24,000 students and 9,000 faculty, administrators, and student affairs professionals at twenty-three colleges and universities. The survey includes questions about the importance of campus learning, the degree to which students are encouraged to develop civic awareness and skills, and practices that advance students’ civic commitments. Civic Responsibility is ideal for on-campus and campus-community discussions about the aims of education and civic engagement. See the press release or purchase a copy online.
Shared Futures Initiative Introduces Online Community for Integrative Global Learning
AAC&U’s Shared Futures initiative has launched an online social network to support educators using integrative teaching and learning methods to address complex global questions. This learning community provides a space where educators can create and maintain active relationships with colleagues as they work to infuse global learning into the curriculum and cocurriculum. Site features include a public discussion forum, an open community blog, groups based on common interests (ethics, sustainability, identity and culture, etc.), and the ability to upload and share documents such as syllabi. To become a part of this community, please visit the homepage. For more information about Shared Futures: Global Learning and Social Responsibility, visit the project Web page or contact Caleb Ward at ward@aacu.org.
Other AAC&U News
Susan Elrod to Lead Project Kaleidoscope as New Director
AAC&U and Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) recently announced the selection of Dr. Susan Elrod, director of the Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education at California Polytechnic State University, as the new, incoming director of Project Kaleidoscope. Elrod, professor of biological sciences, will assume the PKAL directorship in January 2010 when PKAL’s founding director, Jeanne L. Narum, steps down after twenty years at the helm. Narum will continue to work with PKAL as an AAC&U senior fellow and as PKAL director emerita when Elrod assumes the PKAL directorship as a member of AAC&U’s senior staff. Since its founding in 1989, PKAL has been one of the leading advocates in the United States for building and sustaining strong undergraduate programs in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In 2008, AAC&U and PKAL announced a partnership that will align and advance the work of both organizations to help foster meaningful liberal education experiences in the twenty-first century for all students and across all disciplines. See the press release about Elrod’s selection.
AAC&U Senior Director Susan Albertine Appointed to National Advisory Council on Postsecondary Educational Access
The Council of State Governments (CSG) is launching a national campaign to increase the number of high school students who are academically prepared for college after graduation. Susan Albertine, AAC&U’s senior director of LEAP state initiatives, has been appointed a member of the CSG advisory council. The council will lay the groundwork for informing state policymakers about policies and programmatic solutions to increase college readiness, including increased academic rigor through greater access to Advanced Placement and dual credit courses, International Baccalaureate programs, improved teacher education and professional development, and the creation of seamless transitions from high school to college through P-16/20 councils and other innovative governance models.
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Network Meetings
Integrative Learning: Addressing the Complexities
October 22-24, 2009
Atlanta, Georgia
General Education and Assessment: Maintaining Momentum, Achieving New Priorities
February 18-20, 2010
Seattle, Washington Other Meetings
Annual Meeting
The Wit, The Will... And the Wallet:
Supporting Educational Innovation, Shaping our Global Futures
January 20-23, 2010
Washington, DC
For more
information on meetings, visit www.aacu.org/meetings/index.cfm
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