Press Release

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

Association of American Colleges and Universities Announces Six New Directors and a New Slate of Officers for its Board of Directors

Elisabeth Zinser, President of Southern Oregon University, to Serve as Board Chair

Washington, DC—February 1, 2004—At its recent annual meeting, the Association of American Colleges and Universities named six new directors and elected a new slate of officers. Elisabeth Zinser, president of Southern Oregon University, is assuming the role of chair of the board, taking over from Jack Noonan, president emeritus of Bloomfield College.

“I am honored that AAC&U’s membership has entrusted to me the responsibility of leading the board of directors at this very exciting time in the association’s history,” said new board chair, Elisabeth Zinser. “The board is a remarkable group of leaders with a wide array of experience and perspectives on higher education. Each one brings a deep commitment to strengthening the association and especially its ability to make the case for the value of a practical and engaged liberal education for all students in order to have vibrant workforces and communities and an advancing economy and sustainable democracy. Our work depends upon an extraordinary leadership of President Carol Schneider and her talented staff, and it will increasingly draw upon a growing cadre of public advocacy leaders across the spectrum of the American landscape. I look forward to working with the board as the Association prepares to celebrate its 90th anniversary.”

In addition to the appointment of Elisabeth Zinser as chair of the board, AAC&U appointed Ron Crutcher, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Miami University, as vice chair of the board. Jack Noonan continues to serve as an officer of the board as past chair.

New directors include two academic leaders and four college presidents representing two-year and four-year, public and private institutions. Gary Orfield is professor of education and social policy at Harvard University. He directs the Harvard Project on School Desegregation and co-directs the Harvard Civil Rights Project, which is developing and publishing a new generation of research on multiracial civil rights issues. Sharon Stephens Brehm is senior advisor to the president of Indiana University, a position she holds for 2004. In 2005, she will return to full-time faculty status as Professor of Psychology at Indiana University. Prior to coming to Indiana, Brehm has been a faculty member and administrator at the University of Kansas, the State University of New York at Binghamton, and Ohio University.

AAC&U also welcomes to the board Rosemary DePaolo, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, a position she assumed in July, 2003. DePaolo served previously as president of Georgia College and State University. Carolyn G. Williams is the first woman to serve as leader of the Bronx Community College of the City University of New York and was named its fourth president in June, 1996. Prior to assuming the presidency at Bronx Community College, she served as president of Los Angeles Southwest College from 1991-96. Daniel F. Sullivan is the seventeenth president of St. Lawrence University and began his duties in 1996. A graduate of St. Lawrence University, Sullivan served as president of Allegheny College from 1986-1996. Eduardo J. Padron is president of Miami-Dade College, the nation’s largest institution of higher education. Padron recently served on AAC&U’s Greater Expectations National Panel and has served on several presidential commissions, including most recently the President’s Advisory Commission/White House Initiative on Educational Excellence.

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.