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.

Carol Geary Schneider, AAC&U president, will participate in a plenary session on increasing college readiness and completion at the American Council on Education’s 93rd Annual Meeting on March 8 in Washington, DC. On March 16, Schneider will speak at a convening held jointly by Lumina Foundation and the Institute for Higher Education Policy’s Pathways to College Network in Indianapolis, Indiana, and on March 28, she will travel to Baltimoreto receive the ACPA’s Contribution to Higher Education Award, an accolade that “recognizes an individual who has advanced a higher education agenda through work at the institutional, regional, and/or national level…and has, in a meaningful way, enhanced the work done on college campuses and/or with college students.”

Susan Albertine, AAC&U vice president for engagement, inclusion, and success , traveled to College Station, Texas, to present a workshop titled “VALUE-ing What You Do: Engaging in Learner-Centered Assessment” at the Texas A&M University 11th Annual Assessment Conference on February 20. On February 24, Albertine made a presentation titled “Overview of AAC&U’s Essential Learning Outcomes” to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education Transfer and Articulation Initiative, Boulder, Colorado.

Susan Elrod, executive director of Project Kaleidoscope, led a workshop titled, “Trends in Science Education and Learning Spaces” at the University of LaVerne in La Verne, California, on February 4. On February 7, Elrod attended an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow Selection Committee meeting, and on February 17-21, Elrod attended the AAAS annual meeting—both in Washington, DC.

Kevin Hovland, AAC&U director for global learning and curricular change, represented AAC&U at the EducationUSA Higher Education Roundtable at the US Department of State, Washington, DC, February 18.

Debra Humphreys, AAC&U vice president for communications and public affairs, delivered a keynote address on “Learning Outcomes and Meaningful Assessment: Navigating a Climate of Public Skepticism and Shifting Public Policies” at the New Orleans Assessment Conference sponsored by LiveText and held February 18.

Caryn McTighe Musil, AAC&U senior vice president, will be in South Africa from March 14-18 as a plenary speaker for the Cape Higher Education Consortium, a two-day symposium for educators from colleges and universities to explore expectations of capabilities of graduates from their schools.She has also been invited to attend a two-hour seminar at the University of Cape Town and may likely include a third campus visit to University of Western Cape. Musil will be on a Western Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation visit to San Francisco State University from March 21-25.

Terrel Rhodes, AAC&U vice president for quality, curriculum, and assessment, presented a keynote address, “Assessment as a High Impact Practice,” and two sessions, “Assessing General Education: Rising to the Challenge” and “Facilitating Meaningful Assessment on our Campuses: An Overview of AAC&U Tools & Resources,” at Connections 2011: Conference on Higher Education Assessment on February 1 at Virginian Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia. On February 8-9, Rhodes visited Michigan State, where he presented two seminars, “The VALUE in Assessing Student Learning” and “Rubrics’ Cube, or the Matrix Revisited?” On February 15, he participated in Western Association of Colleges and Schools task force discussion in Alameda, California, on exploring degree frameworks and levels of learning.