Press Release

Contact: Debra Humphreys
Vice President for Communications
and Public Affairs
202.387-3760 ext. 422
humphreys@aacu.org

New Consulting Group Created to Assist Colleges and Universities with Curricular and Institutional Change Agendas

Experienced Consultants Available for Help with Strategies for Achieving Greater Expectations

Washington, DC—January 15, 2003—The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) recently launched a new consulting group called The SAGE Group—Strategies for Achieving Greater Expectations. Consisting of more than twenty educational leaders, the SAGE Group provides individual and group consultation to institutions working on comprehensive, learning-driven educational reform. The SAGE Group particularly focuses on serving institutions implementing recommendations from AAC&U’s recently released report, Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College. This publication, a blueprint for educational reform that can be adapted to a variety of institutional missions and types, serves to guide The SAGE Group’s work.

“We are very pleased to be able to offer this new, fee-based service,” said Andrea Leskes, vice president of AAC&U’s Office of Education and Quality Initiatives, director of the Greater Expectations initiative, and coordinator of The SAGE Group. “Since we released the Greater Expectations report, we have heard from hundreds of colleges and universities seeking assistance as they begin to transform curricula and pedagogy to create integrated, coherent programs for student learning. The SAGE Group consultants have many years of campus experience as well as a national perspective on undergraduate education. They are ideally positioned to help campuses with the change process.”

The SAGE Group works with institutions to reallocate resources and realign practices and policies to achieve a more intentional and well-planned educational experience for all students. Institutional work with SAGE consultants may involve mission review, strategic planning, collective articulation of learning outcomes, curricular and general education reform, shared governance, assessment, campus and curricular diversity, faculty development, or global learning.

“Campuses today are facing a host of pressing needs – recruitment and retention of students and faculty; assessment of learning outcomes; accreditation considerations and expectations; general education goals, outcomes, and measurement; undergraduate research and capstone experiences; and new facilities and renovations,” said SAGE consultant David Brakke, dean of the College of Science and Mathematics, James Madison University. “I am pleased to see campuses keeping student learning in focus as they examine how an entire campus structure, facilities, and people contribute to the creation of powerful learning environments.”

The members of The SAGE Group collectively represent a wide range of expertise and experience with many different types of colleges and universities. Enlisting the assistance of The SAGE Group will help AAC&U member campuses and others analyze their own needs, build climates supportive of innovation and learning-driven change, enhance awareness of national educational reform initiatives, and increase faculty involvement in curricular and pedagogical change.

The SAGE Group is affiliated with Greater Expectations: The Commitment to Quality as a Nation Goes to College, AAC&U’s multi-year initiative to articulate the aims of a twenty-first century liberal education and identify comprehensive, innovative models that improve learning for all undergraduate students.

To learn more about The SAGE Group or how to hire a SAGE consultant, see www.aacu.org/sage. Questions may be directed to Kathryn Mueller at mueller@aacu.org or Ross Miller at miller@aacu.org.

AAC&U is the leading national association devoted to advancing and strengthening liberal learning for 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.