Bringing Theory to Practice

4th Annual National Working Conference
January 18-19, 2007
New Orleans, Louisiana

The BTtoP 4th National Working Conference was held at the Sheraton New Orleans in conjunction with AAC&U's Annual Meeting. Participants of the Bringing Theory to Practice project, as well as all those interested in becoming involved with the project attended.

About the Conference
The 2007 BTtoP Working Conference featured the results of three years of research, including the work at seven demonstration sites and nearly forty campus-initiated projects, regarding the outcomes of engaged learning that are linked to students’ academic experience, their well-being and their civic development.  The evidence gained supports initial learnings, promising practices now in the field, and the emerging agenda regarding what next needs to be examined. Please see the collection of BTtoP research compiled by Ashley Finley at Dickinson College, presented in New Orleans BTtoP Research PDF.

A second theme of the BTtoP Conference was the exploration of  “Campus Life and Student Culture” and the perceived disconnect between what students actually experience and what we in the academy claim they experience.  Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz of Smith College and Alexandra Robbins, author of The Overachievers: Secret Lives of Driven Kids, participated on the campus life panel, offering both historical and contemporary perspectives. Their presentations spurred fascinating discussion regarding campus life and how far we've come (and how far we need to go) in understanding the wholeness of the student experience.

in understanding the wholeness of the student experience, it becomes imperative to be able to forge bridges between student well-being and the boundaries of institutional responsibility and liability. Daniel Silverman of Princeton University and Paul Joffe of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offered their expertise in the realm of both professional and legal perspectives, explaining the inherent difficulties in forming these boundaries and offering examples of successful strategies in traversing them.

David Scobey of Bates College, Ronald Flores of St. Lawrence University, and Sylvia Hurtado of UCLA rounded out the Conference with a conversation on the pedagogies of engagement and civic outcomes; the cornerstones of the BTtoP Project. See Scobey's talk "Getting Out of the Bubble" for a sampling from this session.

Throughout the Conference, there were multiple opportunities for interaction and discussion, sparking many quality debates and offering campus representatives a chance to share their own successes, and also learn from the successes of other institutions.

The intellectual quality of the Conference was outstanding, yet there still remain questions and issues that require our attention as a Project and as involved campuses. It is critical that we continue to bring into question the breadth of our knowledge and expertise when it comes to understanding the student experience in terms of defining it and its entities, including not only the terms "engaged learning' and 'civic development', but also alcohol/drug usage and 'dangerous disengagement' as 'problems' that need to be 'fixed'.

The upcoming BTtoP March 30-31 Faculty Conference/Workshop is structured to bring together faculty, student affairs, service-learning, and health center professionals to discuss and seek answers to some of these lingering issues. See Faculty Conference/Workshop for more information.

Thank you to all those that were involved and attended, making the Working Conference a great success!

Conference Materials

Working Conference Program

AAC&U’s Annual Meeting
BTtoP's Working Conference was held in conjunction with AAC&U's Annual meeting; more information can be found at Annual Meeting.

For More Information
Please contact Jennifer O'Brien, BTtoP Program Associate, at 202.884.0815 if you have any questions.