Press Release

CONTACT: Joann Stevens
(202) 387-3760
E-mail:stevens@aacu.org

Andrea Leskes Joins AAC&U as Vice President

Will Launch New Initiative on Excellence in Education

Washington DC—October 9, 1999—Andrea Leskes will join the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in October as the vice president leading "Greater Expectations," a new, national effort to raise students' levels of achievement in college.

"Andrea Leskes will found a new office at AAC&U," said President Carol Geary Schneider, "that extends the important tradition of work begun with AAC&U's influential call for a new Integrity in the College Curriculum (1985). As students flock to higher education in record numbers, there is an urgent need for new clarity about essential educational goals and more powerful ways of supporting high achievement. With this appointment, AAC&U is renewing its commitment to help all students experience the full benefits of a powerful and liberal education. We are delighted that Andrea Leskes will lead our 'Greater Expectations' effort."

AAC&U's call for "'Greater Expectations' began at the 1999 Annual Meeting, when members approved an Association Statement urging a new focus, not just on access to college but on what students need to achieve in college. The statement said that Americans have thrown open the doors to higher education without facing "what it will actually take to help students reap the full benefits of college."

The Association's Annual Meeting in 2000, to be held January 19-22 in Washington, D.C., expands the dialogue about the multiple dimensions of a "Greater Expectations" agenda. Sessions will examine essential literacies, higher education's stake in school reform, recent research on campus cultures that foster high achievement, and the mixed effects of market pressures and legislative mandates on educational excellence.

In addition to providing leadership for AAC&U's "Greater Expectations" effort, Dr. Leskes will direct the Annual Meeting, lead the Asheville Institute on General Education, and serve as a spokeswoman for the Association's work on curricular and academic reform.

Trained in the biological sciences and in French, Dr. Leskes holds a B.A. degree in zoology from Vassar College, a M.A. in French from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Ph.D. in life sciences from The Rockefeller University. Prior to joining AAC&U, she was vice president for academic affairs at The American University of Paris where she helped AUP re-position itself as a cosmopolitan campus offering American liberal arts education to international students from all over the globe.

She also has held appointments at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Dartmouth College, Brandeis University and Northeastern University. At each of these institutions, she distinguished herself as an educational leader skilled in gaining consensus for new directions. At Northeastern University, Dr. Leskes led a nationally admired effort to restructure the undergraduate learning programs within the university's seven colleges. Overcoming traditions of separateness among the colleges and conflicting internal goals, she helped build a clear, coherent vision of undergraduate education during the five years it took to bring about reform. Her work has been supported by both public and private foundations.

According to Dr. Leskes, her new position will require working with a wide range of individuals and initiatives to articulate the meaning and ideals of liberal education. As she puts it, "An aim of most AAC&U projects, as well as most campus-based initiatives, is to enhance educational quality. Often, however, reformers have only a vague idea of what they mean by quality, and vague goals are difficult to achieve." Thus, Dr. Leskes sees her main objective as helping faculty and administrators develop more concrete definitions of their educational purposes, while encouraging them to establish explicit, contemporary, and demanding academic standards.