Media Alert

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

New Survey of College Freshmen Indicates More of Them Committed to Social and Civic Responsibility

Sylvia Hurtado, Director of UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute, and John Pryor, Director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, to Announce Findings from the 2005 Freshman Survey

WHAT: Sylvia Hurtado and John Pryor will present results from the fall                2005 Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey at the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Now in its 40th year, the UCLA survey is the nation’s longest running and most comprehensive assessment of student attitudes and plans for college.

WHO:       • Professor Sylvia Hurtado, Director of the Higher Education
                    Research  Institute

                  • John Pryor, Director of the Cooperative Institutional Research                      Program

                 • Carol Geary Schneider, President of the Association of American     
                   Colleges and Universities

WHEN:      January 25, 2006, 10-11 a.m.

WHERE: The Grand Hyatt
1000 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Room: Lafayette Square
(Metro stop is “Metro Center”; public parking at 11th and G Streets, NW)

Washington, DC—January 13, 2006—The new findings from the annual CIRP Freshman Survey will be released on January 25th at the opening of the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Initiated in fall 1966, the CIRP Freshman Survey is an annual project of the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. The 2005 freshman norms are based on the responses of 263,710 students at 385 of the nation’s baccalaureate colleges and universities. The CIRP Freshman Survey examines the expectations incoming students have for college, their high-school experiences, and their attitudes, values, and life goals, among other issues. The survey serves as a resource for higher education researchers throughout the world.

The director of the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute and the director of the CIRP Freshman Survey will provide an overview of all the survey’s findings. AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider will offer comments on the significance of the findings for higher education institutions.

This year’s survey results indicate record increases in commitments to social and civic responsibility. Presenters will also discuss findings on such topics as college students’ changing attitudes toward military spending, political dissent, interest in political affairs and involvement, drinking in high school, and motivations for attending college.

To obtain embargoed advance copies of the CIRP Freshman Survey findings, please contact Kit Mahoney at UCLA, 310-825-1925; kmahoney@ucla.edu.

For information about AAC&U and its annual meeting and to obtain press credentials for the meeting, contact Debra Humphreys at AAC&U, 202-387-3760, Humphreys@aacu.org. For information, see www.aacu.org/meetings