Press Release

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

New National Leadership Council Calls for Shift in Focus of National Debate on Higher Education

Innovation and Investment in Liberal Education Key to America’s Competitiveness and Strengthening American Democracy, Council Members Suggest

Washington, DC—January 26, 2006—At its annual meeting in Washington, DC, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) announced today the members of a new national leadership council that will champion the value of an engaged and practical liberal education designed to provide all students with the outcomes they need to succeed and make a difference in today’s world.  With representation from higher education, public policy, philanthropy, and the business and media communities, this group of national leaders will be public spokespeople for Liberal Education and America’s Promise: Excellence for Everyone as a Nation Goes to College (LEAP)—a national campaign launched in 2005.  Ronald Crutcher, president of Wheaton College in Massachusetts and Peggy O’Brien, senior vice president, Educational Programming and Services, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, are co-chairing the council.

Four members of the LEAP National Leadership Council—Crutcher, along with AAC&U President Carol Schneider, the Honorable Barbara Lawton, Wisconsin lieutenant governor, and Robert Jones, president of Education and Workforce Policy and former assistant secretary of labor under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush—opened AAC&U’s 92nd annual meeting by calling for a shift in the national dialogue on higher education achievement and accountability. 

“As more and more public officials and business leaders call for greater accountability in higher education, too few national leaders are asking the most important question—accountability for what?,” said AAC&U president Carol Geary Schneider.  “Current initiatives to improve American higher education are doomed to irrelevance if we don’t address the urgent question of what today’s students need from their college learning to succeed in a volatile global economy and to engage in meeting today’s civic challenges.  Many national and state leaders are focused on access, affordability, and accountability, but this familiar trinity misses the central goal of ensuring that today’s college students achieve the outcomes so essential to their success and society’s shared future.”

The LEAP initiative is a campus action and advocacy campaign that champions the value of a liberal education—for individual students and for a nation dependent on economic creativity and democratic vitality.  The campaign shines a spotlight on what really matters in college—the kinds of learning that will empower today’s students to succeed and make a difference in the 21st century.  The LEAP National Leadership Council will spread the word about the emerging consensus on the key outcomes of a quality college education and the need for far more of today’s students to achieve these outcomes.

“In today’s environment, ensuring that more students achieve a robust set of liberal education outcomes has become indispensable to America’s strength and prosperity,” said National Leadership Council member, Roberts T. Jones.  “As knowledge, technology, and global impacts escalate at dizzying rates, so too will the value and significance of the liberal education framework increase.”

The campaign focuses on ensuring that by college graduation, all students achieve:

Strong analytic, communication, quantitative, and information skills;
Deep understanding of the disciplines that explore the natural, social, and cultural realms;
Intercultural knowledge and collaborative problem-solving skills;
Civic, social, and personal responsibility; and
The ability to transfer knowledge from one setting to another.

“The price of admission to this 21st century economy is a liberal education—intellectual agility and ethical competence,” said Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton.  “A state and a nation’s commitment to higher education will determine our success in developing America’s next generation of economic producers.  Our job, then, is to engage the media, policymakers, and citizens in understanding the critical public value of a liberal education. How we prepare and support our young people will drive our ability to compete and adapt to economic challenges both within and beyond our borders.”

In addition to the National Leadership Council, the LEAP campaign is also engaging more than 135 colleges and universities in a LEAP Campus Action Network and is sponsoring liberal education advocacy activities in selected pilot states.  Advocacy initiatives have already begun in Wisconsin and Virginia.

See attached for a complete list of LEAP National Leadership Council members, and visit www.aacu.org/advocacy for more information about LEAP campaign activities and resources.

The LEAP initiative was launched with a major grant from the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation and has also received support from The Charles Engelhard Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Johnson Foundation, the AT&T Foundation, the members of AAC&U Board of Directors, and other individual donors.

To see the current members of the LEAP National Leadership Council, click here. 

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.