Staff Service Sabbatical Program at Elon University Featured in May AAC&U News
The May issue of AAC&U News features the staff service sabbatical program at Elon University; research on economic mobility and education; a new opportunity for readers to comment on Perspectives opinion pieces; and the latest news about AAC&U meetings, projects, podcasts, and publications. Read the issue online at aacu.org/aacu_news.
(Posted on Wed, 7 May 2008 11:38:26 -0500)

The New Issue of Peer Review Focuses on Academic Advising
The latest issue of Peer Review addresses the role of academic advising in undergraduate education with a special focus on general education goals and the documentation of the achievement of student learning outcomes. Read the issue online at aacu.org/peer_review.
(Posted on Thu, 1 May 2008 16:36:58 -0500)

AAC&U Public Health Initiative Receives Grant from the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation
AAC&U received a grant from the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation to support the work of the Educated Citizen and Public Health initiative. The grant will support research on approaches to incorporating public health into the undergraduate curriculum and dissemination of findings through a special issue of Peer Review. The research will also contribute to the deliberations of the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Undergraduate Public Health and inform AAC&U's ongoing efforts to assist colleges and universities in developing undergraduate public health curricula. Read the press release at aacu.org/press_room/press_releases/2008/macy.cfm and learn more about the Educated Citizen and Public Health initiative at aacu.org/public_health.
(Posted on Thu, 1 May 2008 16:14:29 -0500)

New AAC&U Book, Civic Engagement at the Center, Focuses on Student Service
The newly published AAC&U book Civic Engagement at the Center: Building Democracy through Intregrated Cocurricular and Curricular Experiences, developed in partnership with the Bonner Foundation, focuses on how to structure educational experiences for college students that engage them and their institutions in serving the public good. Learn more and order the book at secure.aacu.org.
(Posted on Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:21:47 -0500)

AAC&U Urges Caution in Development of International Assessment Efforts
AAC&U recently joined the American Council on Education (ACE) and other organizations to express concerns about a new international higher education assessment effort sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). AAC&U signed a letter from ACE to the OECD education director that calls attention to problems with OECD's proposal to test collegiate learning outcomes. The letter expresses concern that results from the test could potentially be used to rank institutions and would encourage ineffective comparisons between dissimilar schools and programs. The letter instead affirms a set of recommendations AAC&U and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) recently made in its joint leadership statement, New Leadership for Student Learning and Accountability. This statement and the letter from ACE both encourage individualized learning-outcome assessments, including portfolios, performance-based assessments, and capstone projects. Read the joint AAC&U/CHEA Statement at aacu.org/resources/assessment/documents/New_Leadership_Statement.pdf.
(Posted on Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:33:32 -0500)

AAC&U Senior Fellow's Article Featured in Inside Higher Ed
Don Harward, AAC&U senior fellow and director of the Bringing Theory to Practice Project, writes in a recent opinion article in Inside Higher Ed about ways to address alarming levels of student disengagement on college campuses. Harward calls on higher education to move beyond "addressing only narrowly academic means and strategies rather than the integrated goals and ends that matter to our students and to our democracy." Learn more about Bringing Theory to Practice at aacu.org/bringing_theory, and read the Inside Higher Ed article at insidehighered.com/views/2008/04/15/harward.
(Posted on Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:49:26 -0500)

New Survey Stresses Need for Personal and Social Responsibility on Campus
On April 17, AAC&U's Core Commitments initiative released a new report titled "Should College Focus More on Personal and Social Responsibility?" The report draws preliminary findings from the Personal and Social Responsibility Institutional Inventory administered in fall 2007 to more than 20,000 students and 8,800 faculty, academic administrators, and student affairs staff. While the report reveals that students, faculty, academic administrators, and student affairs personnel all believe these issues should be a major focus of campus attention, the survey also suggests a gap between aspirations and the climate actually experienced on campus. Additional reports from the initiative will be released in coming year. Learn more about Core Commitments at aacu.org/core_commitments, and read the press release at aacu.org/press_room/press_releases/2008/PSRII.cfm or the entire initial report at aacu.org/core_commitments/documents/PSRII_Findings_April2008.pdf (pdf).
(Posted on Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:42:12 -0500)

Susan Albertine to Head AAC&U's LEAP State Initiatives
AAC&U announced the appointment of Susan Albertine as the first senior director of LEAP State Initiatives in AAC&U's Office of Curriculum, Quality, and Assessment. In this role, Albertine will provide proactive intellectual and practical leadership for the overall program of LEAP partner state initiatives. She will serve as the key liaison with multiple project contacts in the field, including policy, campus, business, Pre K-16, and community leaders. Read the full announcement at aacu.org/press_room/press_releases/2008/albertine.cfm. Find out more about the LEAP Initiative at aacu.org/advocacy/leap.
(Posted on Thu, 3 Apr 2008 11:58:38 -0500)

AAC&U TV Features LEAP Campuses on iTunes and YouTube
YouTube and iTunes now feature eleven short videos spotlighting effective educational programs and practices that our member campuses are developing as part of their involvement in our Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP) initiative. Access these videos on the AAC&U TV pages at aacu.org/aacutv.
(Posted on Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:52:21 -0500)