Press Release

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

Daniel Hiroyuki Teraguchi
202-387-3760 ext. 429
dt@aacu.org

Program for Health and Higher Education Supports the Participation of Campus Teams in Institute on Student Engagement, Inclusion, and Achievement

Washington, DC—May 4, 2006—The Program for Health and Higher Education (PHHE), an initiative of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), has awarded leadership development grants to support the participation of several campuses in the 2006 AAC&U Greater Expectations Institute, scheduled for June 21-25, 2006, in Snowbird, Utah. Teams of administrators, faculty, student affairs professionals, and students from five institutions will attend the Institute, including Albany State University, Georgia College and State University, Georgia Military College, The Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Massachusetts Boston.

“In order to improve the health and learning of Penn State students, our team is committed to using the ecological approach to campus health and student success developed by Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA),” said Susan Kennedy, director of Health Promotion and Education at Pennsylvania State University. “We plan to use our attendance at the AAC&U Greater Expectations Institute to raise and hopefully answer questions about how we are aligning our structures, policies and practices with a holistic vision of learning.”

Supporting participation in this Institute is part of PHHE's strategy to mobilize the resources of higher education in the national and global struggle to reduce the spread and improve the management of HIV disease. At the Institute, campuses will work on developing models to improve undergraduate education by using the HIV pandemic to engage students across disciplines, develop their sense of social responsibility, and foster the intercultural skills that are needed to solve society’s important problems. The overarching goal is to strengthen campuses’ capacity to sustain their HIV initiatives by fostering connections between health projects and institutional priorities in order to deepen and expand the project’s impact on students, the campus, the surrounding community, and the workplace.

“At the GEX institute, team members from the University of Massachusetts Boston will seek to build on the accomplishments of the Honors Program and to expand and sustain our circles of dialogue and action on HIV/AIDS,” said Shirley Tang, assistant professor of American Studies/Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Boston

The Greater Expectations Institute is a five-day, intensive program designed for leadership teams working on ways to increase student engagement, inclusion, and high achievement. The Institute helps teams align institutional purposes, structures, and practices and advance and assess the kinds of practical liberal education outcomes outlined in AAC&U’s signature report, Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College. These include key outcomes like critical inquiry, intercultural competence, and integrative learning.

The Program for Health and Higher Education has for nearly a decade worked with colleges and universities to place rigorous academic focus on the prevention of HIV infection and other complex health issues. This focus is designed to increase student knowledge about HIV and AIDS and improve undergraduate learning by fostering collaborative problem solving, interdisciplinary learning, social responsibility, and civic engagement.

The PHHE project is funded by a cooperative agreement (00081) with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH), Atlanta, Georgia. The contents of this press release are solely the responsibility of PHHE and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC.

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.