Press Release

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

AAC&U Appoints New Senior Fellow, Larry A. Braskamp, and New Senior Scholar, R. Eugene Rice

Washington, DC—June 28, 2005—The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) announced today the appointment of Larry A. Braskamp as a senior fellow and R. Eugene Rice as a senior scholar.

Larry A. Braskamp is a professor in the School of Education at Loyola University Chicago, where he has worked since 1998. From 1998 to 2002, he served there as senior vice president for academic affairs. Prior to assuming this position at Loyola University, he was a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Braskamp also served for one year as the executive director of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. He received a mid-career teaching fellowship from the Danforth Foundation and a Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Braskamp has published, presented, and consulted widely on such topics as assessment of faculty work, student development, university-community partnerships, and, most recently, the issue of student identity development at faith-related colleges and universities. He is currently completing a book, Investing in Students, in which he presents findings from case studies at ten church-related colleges. Braskamp holds a BA in psychology from Central College in Iowa and an MA and PhD in psychology from the University of Iowa. While at AAC&U, Braskamp will be working in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives.

"We are very pleased to have Larry Braskamp bring his expertise and insights to the work of AAC&U's Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives," said AAC&U Senior Vice President Caryn McTighe Musil. "His work in exploring the religious dimensions of student learning and development will inform AAC&U's exploration of the multiple and intersecting aspects of diversity that are so important in both higher education and our local and global communities. His insights and research will be especially valuable as AAC&U moves forward on the Greater Expectations recommendation that the academy make individual and social responsibility integral themes in all students' liberal education."

R. Eugene Rice served for ten years as director of the Forum on Faculty Roles and Rewards and the New Pathways projects at the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE). Before moving to AAHE, he was vice president and dean of the faculty at Antioch College, where he held an appointment as professor of sociology and religion. Rice has also served as a senior fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where he worked on a national study of the scholarly priorities of the American professoriate and collaborated with the late Ernest Boyer on the Carnegie report Scholarship Reconsidered. Rice has written and consulted on a wide array of topics and received many awards, including the Danforth fellowship and a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship. His most recent publications include "Making a Place for the New American Scholar," forthcoming in a new book edited with Kerry Ann O'Meara called Faculty Priorities Reconsidered: Encouraging Multiple Forms of Scholarship. In Change magazine's survey of America's higher education leaders, Gene Rice was recognized as one of a small group of "idea leaders" whose work has made a difference nationally. Rice is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and received his PhD from Harvard University.

"Both Gene Rice and Larry Braskamp have brought serious scholarship and personal commitment to the national movements for far-reaching educational change," said AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider. "We are delighted to welcome them as colleagues in AAC&U's continuing efforts to make liberal education the gold standard for all students' educational success."

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 1,000 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.