Press Release

Contact: Debra Humphreys
Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs
202-387-3760 ext. 422
Humphreys@aacu.org

New Reports Provide Campus Roadmap for Making Excellence Inclusive

Recent research linking Diversity, Equity, and Educational Excellence featured in three new reports from the Association of American Colleges and Universities

Washington, DC—September 12, 2005—The Association of American Colleges and Universities released today three new path-breaking reports that present a vision of "inclusive excellence," notable for its linking of research on diversity, inclusion, equity, and learning with efforts to strengthen the quality of the undergraduate degree. Produced with support from the Ford Foundation, these reports are published as part of AAC&U's signature initiative, Making Excellence Inclusive.

"In Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College, AAC&U sketched out the contours of a "New Academy" in which educational excellence and diversity are integrally related," said AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider. "These new reports, written by leading education scholars, reflect the latest research on the connections between diversity and excellence and chart pathways for campuses to take in implementing this important hallmark of the New Academy."

In Making Diversity Work on Campus: A Research-Based Perspective, Jeffrey Milem, Mitchell Chang, and Anthony Antonio summarize recent evidence demonstrating the educational benefits of diversity in the college curriculum and cocurriculum. Diverse learning environments, they contend, must be intentionally planned and nurtured. Diversity should be conceived of as an essential component of educational excellence and not simply a numerical target such as a certain percentage of students or a certain number of programs.

In Achieving Equitable Educational Outcomes with All Students:The Institution's Roles and Responsibilities, Georgia Bauman, Letitia Tomas Bustillos, Estela Bensimon, M. Christopher Brown III, and RoSusan Bartee discuss the persistence of racial/ethnic achievement gaps in college. They present one campus' process for systematically monitoring and addressing inequities it discovered. The authors argue that higher education must commit to gathering evidence about what does and does not work for historically underserved students or else run the risk of failing a significant portion of today's students--even as campuses diversify their student bodies to a greater extent than ever before.

In Toward a Model of Inclusive Excellence in Post-Secondary Institutions, Damon Williams, Joseph Berger, and Shederick McClendon offer a framework for comprehensive organizational change to help campuses achieve inclusive excellence. The authors recommend that campuses consider multiple dimensions of organizational culture in mapping out a change strategy and monitor the results that come from introducing new systems and practices. Their Inclusive Excellence Change Model can help campus leaders focus simultaneously on the "big picture"--an academy that systematically leverages diversity for student learning and institutional excellence--and the myriad individual pieces that contribute to that picture.

These reports emerge from the work of a cadre of leading researchers as well as from discussions with hundreds of campus leaders across the country. These individuals described their experiences with integrating inclusion and quality efforts and provided feedback on early drafts of the papers.

"Every college graduate today needs the skills and capacities to function effectively in a diverse world," said Ronald Crutcher, president of Wheaton College and chair of AAC&U's board of directors. "AAC&U's Making Excellence Inclusive initiative will be extremely valuable to college campuses across the country as they continue to transform themselves into intercultural learning communities in which every student achieves to their highest potential and every graduate is prepared to meet the challenges of our diverse world."

Making Excellence Inclusive is designed to help colleges and universities fully integrate their diversity and educational quality efforts, place these concerted efforts at the core of academic mission and institutional functioning, and utilize them to achieve academic excellence for all students. In the coming months, the initiative will develop practical resources to help campuses take comprehensive action that inextricably links campus diversity and academic excellence.

The reports are available in their entirety online at www.aacu.org.

For more information about Making Excellence Inclusive, see www.aacu.org/inclusive_excellence. For information on other AAC&U publications and projects on diversity, equity, inclusion and excellence, see www.aacu.org/issues/diversity.

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. Founded in 1915, AAC&U now comprises more than 1,150 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 on the AAC&U Web site.