AAC&U Publications

Meeting the Moment...Today: An Educator’s Guide for Navigating Politically Charged Challenges on Campus

By Nancy L. Thomas

As colleges and universities navigate intensifying political pressures, threats to academic freedom, and deepening polarization, faculty and staff face difficult questions about how to uphold their institutions’ educational missions. What can individual educators do to resist censorship and self-censorship, foster productive dialogue across differences, and protect the conditions necessary for teaching, learning, and scholarly inquiry?

Reforming and Refining General Education: Insights for Leadership, Coordination, and Governance

Edited by Caleb J. Keith, Kate Drezek McConnell, and C. Edward Watson

Reimagining general education as a catalyst for student success, this innovative collection showcases diverse campus narratives to guide administrators in meaningful reform.

Tough Decisions: The University President’s Journey

Edited by Susan C. Aldridge and Jay Liebowitz

College and university presidents face increasingly complex decisions amid political pressures, financial uncertainty, institutional change, and competing stakeholder demands. How do higher education leaders navigate crises, uphold institutional values, and make difficult choices that shape the future of their institutions?

Engaging Community: A Toolkit for Reciprocal Teaching and Learning Beyond the Campus

By Nicholas V. Longo, Carmine Perrotti, and Matthew H. Roy

This free toolkit helps educators design meaningful community-engaged learning experiences built on reciprocal partnerships, shared learning, and strong campus–community relationships.

Human Wisdom for the Age of AI: A Field Guide to Cultivating Essential Skills

This free guide helps students develop the human skills and judgment needed to navigate the age of artificial intelligence.

Exploring Equitable Community–Campus Relationships

Edited by Karla Bird, Suchitra V. Gururaj, Sara B. Moore, Andrea Robles, and Cindy Vincent Claar

This volume offers replicable strategies for centering equity in campus–community partnerships, highlighting how equitable practices are defined and enacted across diverse contexts. Through case studies and reflective analyses, contributors emphasize relationship-building as the foundation of meaningful engagement while addressing successes, challenges, and lessons learned. A valuable resource for scholars, educators, and community partners committed to equity-driven collaboration.

Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning

By José Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson

This updated second edition provides a practical roadmap for integrating AI into teaching, covering new tools such as reasoning models, simulations, and customized bots while addressing ethics, academic integrity, and emerging challenges. Blending research with hands-on strategies, it helps educators design interactive assignments, enhance assessment, and use AI to deepen learning. Published in partnership with Johns Hopkins University Press.

Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence

A collaborative resource from Elon University and AAC&U, this guide equips students to navigate AI academically, professionally, and ethically. It offers responsible-use guidance, practical strategies for leveraging AI in coursework and career preparation, and tools for crafting effective AI prompts—empowering learners to thrive in an AI-driven world.

AI-U/v1.0: A Student Guide to Navigating College in the Artificial Intelligence Era

This free student guide offers ethical ground rules, practical uses and cautions, and advice for academic and career planning in an AI-infused world. Developed by Elon University and AAC&U with global collaborators, it is the first in a series of freely adaptable resources designed to evolve as artificial intelligence advances.

Strengthening Campus Communities Through the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Framework

Edited by Tia Brown McNair

This volume highlights the work of AAC&U and TRHT Campus Centers in advancing racial healing and dismantling the belief in a hierarchy of human value. Through case studies and practical strategies, it demonstrates how higher education institutions and community partners can promote narrative change, build equitable relationships, and foster thriving, inclusive communities.

Mentored Undergraduate Research in Global Contexts: Integrated High-Impact Practices for Student Success

Edited by Dawn Michele Whitehead, Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Susan Buck Sutton, Mary F. Price, Kate Patch, and Kris Acheson

This volume examines how integrating mentoring, undergraduate research, and global learning creates powerful high-impact experiences for students and institutions alike. Through models from diverse settings, it shows how MUR-GC broadens access to global learning, fosters interdisciplinary and ethical engagement, and strengthens outcomes for students, faculty, and host communities.

General Education Essentials: A Guide for College Faculty

By Paul Hanstedt

This second edition provides a timely, insightful overview of current trends in general education reform, offering practical strategies for designing curricula that cultivate intellectual flexibility and meaningful learning across disciplines. Blending theory with actionable implementation ideas, the book guides faculty through the shift from distributive to integrative, high-impact models while highlighting real examples of how reform shapes syllabi, course content, and student work. Essential reading for educators committed to preparing students to think critically and engage productively in a rapidly changing world.

Exemplars of Assessment in Higher Education, Volume Two: Strategies for a Changing Higher Education Environment

Edited by Jane Marie Souza and Tara A. Rose

Featuring case studies from more than fifteen institutions worldwide, this volume showcases innovative assessment strategies in areas such as career readiness, distance education, DEI, and general education—reflecting shifts in higher education in the post-COVID era. Aligned with AAC&U’s VALUE initiative, it provides practical examples to help educators strengthen and diversify their assessment practices.

Making the Case for Open Educational Resources

By C. Edward Watson and Rachel Rush-Marlowe

This publication provides OER advocates with research, evidence, and practical guidance for crafting persuasive presentations, publications, and arguments that demonstrate the benefits of open educational resources for students and their learning.

Leveraging Open Educational Resources to Advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A Guide for Campus Change Agents

By C. Edward Watson, Lisa Petrides, Anastasia Karaglani, Selena Burns, and Judith Sebesta

This publication provides evidence-based guidance and best practices for connecting open educational resources (OER) with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts to advance institutional equity goals and support sustainable, broad adoption of OER.

Higher Education in a Changing World

Edited by Orlando Taylor, Nicole Retland, and Katherine McGraw

This volume examines the rapidly evolving landscape of twenty-first-century higher education, exploring accreditation pressures, economic challenges, shifting workforce demands, and the pursuit of equity and access. Contributions from nearly fifty scholars and leaders address global leadership challenges, institutional competitiveness, diversity initiatives, the role of HBCUs, STEM reform, and strategies for creating transformative student experiences.

Practicing Democracy: A Toolkit for Educating Civic Professionals

By Nicholas V. Longo

This practical guide offers hands-on strategies and lesson-based activities to help educators cultivate civic professionalism across all majors, preparing students to engage in collaborative public problem solving. Organized into twelve adaptable lessons with accompanying assessment tools, it supports critical dialogue and democratic engagement among diverse student groups. Co-published by AAC&U and Campus Compact.

Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success, 2nd Edition

By Tia Brown McNair, Susan Albertine, Nicole McDonald, Thomas Major, Jr, and Michelle Asha Cooper

This updated edition reframes the notion of “college readiness” by focusing not on students’ limitations but on how institutions can transform their policies, practices, and culture to better support today’s learners. Drawing on current social realities and emerging strategies, it offers practical guidance for fostering equity, strengthening institutional capacity, and designing partnerships and supports that help all students thrive.

The Community's College: The Pursuit of Democracy, Economic Development, and Success

The Community's College: The Pursuit of Democracy, Economic Development, and Success

By Robert L. Pura and Tara L. Parker

Drawing on firsthand leadership experience and research, this book explores the vital role community colleges play in advancing democracy, economic development, and social mobility while confronting chronic underfunding and complex institutional missions. Through analysis, leadership insights, and case studies from diverse campuses, the authors make a compelling case for greater investment in community colleges and offer guidance for policymakers, educators, and emerging leaders dedicated to strengthening these essential institutions.

Getting Ready: The Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Post-Pandemic World

Getting Ready: The Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Post-Pandemic World

By William D. Adams

This publication examines lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic—from scientific discovery to systemic inequities—and argues for the renewed relevance of the liberal arts and sciences in preparing students for work, civic life, and personal meaning. Adams offers a forward-looking vision for how higher education can respond to post-pandemic challenges while strengthening democratic and humanistic foundations.