Press Release

Contact: Caryn McTighe Musil
(202) 387-3760 ext. 426

Association of American Colleges and Universities Announces Partnership with Consortium for Liberal Education and Entrepreneurship

Ewing Marion Kauffman Grant to Support Leadership Meetings, National Symposium, and Series of Publications

Washington, DC—July 2, 2004—The Association of American Colleges and Universities announced today the formation of a partnership with the Consortium for Liberal Education and Entrepreneurship at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. Supported by a subcontract in a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City to the College of Charleston, AAC&U will develop a national symposium and a series of publications to explore how the idea of an entrepreneurial spirit, imbued with a sense of social responsibility, can reinvigorate contemporary understandings of liberal education.

"AAC&U is excited about this new partnership and the provocative dialogues and innovative curricula it is sure to prompt within the disciplines, especially those not typically associated with entrepreneurship," said AAC&U Senior Vice President Caryn McTighe Musil. "This initiative builds on AAC&U's existing projects, including Greater Expectations and the Center for Liberal Education and Civic Engagement, each of which was designed to help campuses develop a more engaged, socially responsible, and practical form of liberal education appropriate for the challenges of the twenty-first century."

The Consortium for Liberal Education and Entrepreneurship was formed at a meeting at the College of Charleston in 2003. It is a network of colleges and universities dedicated to encouraging and stimulating liberal arts and sciences institutions to infuse entrepreneurship into the framework of a liberal education and to facilitate collaborations that connect the arts and sciences with business, engineering, and other professional programs.

"The Kauffman Foundation's support for the Liberal Education and Entrepreneurship Consortium and the partnership being forged with AAC&U offer the promise of great opportunities for proponents of both entrepreneurship and liberal education to explore many points of connection," said Sam Hines, dean of the school of humanities and social sciences at the College of Charleston. "A liberal education is the best practical education for the twenty-first century. And this exploration of how a liberal education can prepare students to become effective entrepreneurs, assuming risks and responsibilities in business and in their communities, is an exciting prospect. We are confident that it will help us develop programs that prepare students to become lifelong learners and committed citizens. The College of Charleston is especially pleased to have the opportunity to facilitate this collaborative effort on behalf of the Consortium."

In its widely read report, Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College, a national panel of education, business, policy, and community leaders convened by AAC&U suggested that "As they participate in a knowledge-based economy and an increasingly interdependent world, all students will need to be nimble thinkers and creative problem solvers. To think outside the box, they will depend on intellectual flexibility, at least as much as on factual information." The entrepreneurial spirit, inflected with a sense of civic consequences, then, is at the heart of today's practical and engaged liberal education. With this project, AAC&U will engage its members in a national dialogue about practical ways to develop this entrepreneurial spirit through liberal education.

On January 26, 2005, AAC&U will sponsor a pre-conference symposium called "Working Convergences: Liberal Education, Creativity, and the Entrepreneurial Spirit" at its upcoming 90th annual meeting, "Liberal Education and the New Academy." Drawing on the presentations and discussions from that symposium, it will also publish a special issue of its periodical, Peer Review, and a monograph in its "Academy in Transition" series of publications.

For additional information, see www.aacu.org.

AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. Its members are committed to extending the advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Since its founding in 1915, AAC&U's membership has grown to more than 1000 accredited public and private colleges and universities of every type and size.

AAC&U functions as a catalyst and facilitator, forging links among presidents, administrators, and faculty members who are engaged in institutional and curricular planning. Its mission is to reinforce the collective commitment to liberal education at both the national and local levels and to help individual institutions keep the quality of student learning at the core of their work as they evolve to meet new economic and social challenges.

Information about AAC&U membership, programs, and publications can be found at www.aacu.org.

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City works with partners to advance entrepreneurship in America and improve the educational achievement of youth. The late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman established the Kauffman Foundation in the mid-1960s. Information about the Kauffman Foundation is available at www.kauffman.org.