AAC&U Annual Meeting
January 25-28, 2012
Washington, DC / Grand Hyatt Hotel

SHARED FUTURES / DIFFICULT CHOICES
Reclaiming a Democratic Vision for College Learning,
Global Engagement, and Success

Informal Discussion Forums

THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 8:00-9:30 PM
Organizing Meeting: Business Education and Civic Engagement

Following on the Carnegie Foundation’s recent study Rethinking Undergraduate Business Education (Jossey-Bass, 2011) and the related conference session “Reshaping Business Education: Preparing Students for Society and Democracy” (Thursday, January 26, 4:15-5:45), we invite colleagues interested in business education to meet each other and discuss ways to collaborate in creating forms of civic engagement especially suited to the business disciplines.  Can we develop civic resources for business education analogous to those developed for the STEM disciplines?  What theoretical and cultural issues arise when linking civic engagement with business concepts and practices?  What role can organizations like AAC&U play in fostering a more robust civic-business education dialogue?  Please join us after dinner for coffee and conversation.
Facilitator:  Edward Zlotkowski, Professor of English and Media Studies, and Director of the Bentley Service-Learning  Center, Bentley University

SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 9:45-10:45 AM
Tenure and Promotion and the Challenge of Institutionalizing Civic Learning

In light of our shared efforts to institutionalize a civic ethos, civic perspectives, civic literacy, and civic agency within all of our colleges (A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future, 2012), join our faculty learning community on civic engagement for a frank discussion of tenure and promotion wording that supports civic learning. Is your college already rewarding faculty who integrate community-based learning, service learning, and experiential learning into the curriculum across the disciplines but not civic learning or civic literacy? To reshape institutional structures to appropriately incorporate civic learning and support the faculty who do, we need to share our institutions’ internal processes as we are engaging in a national dialogue that influences how we move forward together. How does your school institutionally reinforce a democratic vision? How do you propose to strengthen and improve it? Please join us on Saturday morning for an urgent, overdue multi-university conversation.
Facilitated by the Faculty Learning Community on Civic Engagement, Middle Tennessee State University
Mary A. Evins, Associate Professor of History and Coordinator, American Democracy Project
Hilary Stallings, Manager of Recruitment and Resources, College of Liberal Arts
Kaylene Gebert, Professor of Speech and Theatre
Tony Johnston, Professor of Agribusiness and Agriscience;
Laura Clark, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership
Brad Bartel, University Provost