Media Alert

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

Global Challenges Require New Investment and Innovation in Liberal Education

College Leaders Gather To Chart New Course for Improving
Student Achievement and Generating Public Support

Event: Demanding Excellence: Liberal Education in an Era of Global Competition, Anti- Intellectualism, and Disinvestment
Annual Meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities

Date: January 25-28, 2006

Location: Grand Hyatt Hotel, 1000 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001
Room: Lafayette Square

Washington, DC—January 17, 2006—The public has heard the message—higher education is essential to success in today’s world. But how will the nation’s colleges and universities provide to today’s students the kind of excellence in education they need to succeed in a volatile global economy and to help strengthen the nation’s democracy? Will the nation’s policymakers and business leaders demand greater investment in higher education? Will educational leaders boldly innovate to ensure that today’s liberal education serves all students and provides them with the skills, capacities, and knowledge they need?

Over three days later this month, more than 1,400 college leaders will gather to debate these fundamental questions and share promising practices and new research on what works to achieve excellence for today’s college students.

“It is high time the nation focused attention on what really matters in college,” said AAC&U president Carol Geary Schneider. “And it is essential that college leaders look both within and outside the academy for inspiration and support as they reinvent liberal education for a new era. It is time to bury the old dichotomy between liberal education and work preparation. In today’s world, liberal education is the best preparation to make a living and make a difference. The speakers and sessions at our upcoming annual meeting will present the leading edge of change in an academy poised to provide this education to all of today’s students.”

At its 92nd annual meeting, the Association of American Colleges and Universities will feature the latest research, most innovative campus practices, and most provocative and important speakers on the future of higher education in America.

Highlights Include:

The latest data about first-year students gleaned from the annual CIRP Freshman Survey released each year by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles
(News conference on Wednesday, January 25, 10 a.m.; featured session on Thursday, January 26, 4:15 p.m.)

Sessions and discussion about AAC&U’s new board of director’s statement on “Academic Freedom and Educational Responsibility”

Announcement of Members of the National Leadership Council of Liberal Education and America’s Promise, AAC&U’s recently launched national campaign. Members of the council who will be featured speakers at the meeting include:

Robert T. Jones, president of Education and Workforce Policy
Barbara Lawton, Lt. Governor of Wisconsin
Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran
James Gentile, president of Research Corporation
Sylvia Hurtado, director, Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA
Judith Eaton, executive director, Council for Higher Education Accreditation
Ronald Crutcher, president of Wheaton College (MA)

Pre-meeting Symposium on Science and Global Learning
Wednesday, January 25, 8:30 a.m. -- 4:30 p.m.

Town Hall Forum on The United States and/in the World: What Americans Need to Know and What Colleges Need to Teach
Wednesday, January 25, 7 -- 8:30 p.m.

A College Presidents’ Forum on “Making Excellence Inclusive”
Thursday, January 26, 7:00 a.m. -- 5:30 p.m.

Other featured and concurrent sessions will address such topics as: demanding excellence in the sciences; the premium on innovation and the new global competition for talent; new assessment techniques and data on educational achievement; new models for campus diversity and academic excellence; faculty work in the new academy; the Bologna Process and the future of European higher education; advocacy and academic freedom in the classroom; religion and public life; global values and leadership.

Other organizations sponsoring sessions or concurrent meetings or events include The Aspen Institute, Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, Society for Values in Higher Education, Associated New American Colleges, National Survey of Student Engagement, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

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 1,000 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.