89th Meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities

The Courage to Question:
Liberal Education in the 21st Century

Held in conjunction with the 59th Annual Meeting of the American Conference of Academic Deans: "The Courage to Question: The Dean's Role"

January 22-25, 2003
Seattle, Washington

About the Meeting

Liberal Education at the Crossroads
The academy is rethinking what should be expected of college education. While the new century irresistibly invites stark - and usually artificial - calls to question foundational ideas, AAC&U leaders believe that we are, in fact, standing at a social and educational crossroads. Most Americans today aspire to higher education, but there is no agreement on the type of education that will best prepare students for the challenges of our turbulent and interdependent world. The need for deep questioning is genuine.

Retreat or Renaissance: Assessing the Outlook for Liberal Education
Liberal education best provides students with the knowledge, the skills, and the wisdom to make informed judgements, embrace grounded commitments, and take ethical action in a diverse, fast-changing world. But liberal education is not a static model awaiting periodic rediscovery. It is a dynamic set of principles that needs to be constantly adapted to the opportunities and problems of each era.

Creative efforts to reinvent liberal education abound. The academy is critically evaluating past successes and failures of liberal education as well as its ability to address basic questions of social trust, civic duty, international justice, sustainable health, freedom and security today and into the future. The AAC&U community is dedicated to increasing public understanding of liberal education and fostering societal commitment to providing a quality liberal education to every college student. While we hold many goals in common, institutional circumstances and strategies differ greatly. The 2003 Annual Meeting will allow us to learn from each other, to deepen our shared commitments and to continue to connect-personally, intellectually and institutionally - through the work we do.

The Courage to Question
Framed by addresses from leading historians, the meeting will ask fundamental questions of the past-questions whose answers will, in turn, shape our future: What are the core values of liberal education? What should be preserved? What needs to be changed? How do we best develop intellectual and ethical judgement? Can we educate for wisdom? How do we continue to expand cultural, societal and scientific horizons? How do we cultivate democratic engagement and global knowledge, social justice and sustainable health? And how do we most usefully allocate resources among our many priorities?

Join us in Seattle as we explore the value of liberal education-in the lives of our students, in the character of our institutions, and in the integrity of our actions.

If you have questions, please e-mail us at meetings@aacu.org.