Partnerships

AAC&U currently partners with the following organizations on projects that advance liberal education. Through funded projects and sponsored meetings, AAC&U also has robust relationships with hundreds of campuses, dozens of foundations and governmental agencies, and additional partner organizations.

American Conference of Academic Deans
The American Conference of Academic Deans (ACAD) was founded in 1945 as a national organization for deans from institutions belonging to AAC&U, which, at that time, was called the Association of American Colleges. Although membership in ACAD is now open to all academic officers, the historic affiliation between AAC&U and ACAD continues through mutual commitment to fostering liberal education, and through cosponsorship of annual meetings and other collaborative programs.

The Aspen Institute
AAC&U and the Aspen Institute cosponsor the Wye Faculty Seminar: Citizenship in the American Polity. Each summer, this week-long seminar on key themes and texts in U.S. and Western democracy is held at the Wye Plantation on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The seminar themes include the scope and limits of government; unity and plurality; dissent and civil disobedience; and education for the polity. For additional information, contact Charlene Costello at Charlene.Costello@aspeninstitute.org.

Coalition on the Academic Workforce
Along with other learned societies and disciplinary organizations in the humanities and social sciences, AAC&U participates in the Coalition on the Academic Workforce. Established in 1997, the coalition works on issues related to part-time and contingent faculty.

Delphi Project on The Changing Faculty and Student Success
In partnership with the Pullias Center for Higher Education, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California, AAC&U is co-sponsoring a project to address the challenges of a changing faculty in relation to student learning and student success. The partnership, which began with a modified Delphi study approach, was initiated to support a better understanding of the factors that have led to a majority of faculty’s being hired off the tenure track and the impact of current workforce circumstances on teaching and learning. The project is funded through support from the Spencer Foundation, the Teagle Foundation, and the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching.

The Democracy Commitment
AAC&U is a contributing partner in the Democracy Commitment initiative. The Democracy Commitment is a national initiative that will provide a national platform for the development and expansion of programs and projects aiming at engaging community college students in civic learning and democratic practice. The goal of the partnership is that every graduate of an American community college shall have had an education in democracy. This includes all of our students, whether they aim to transfer to university, achieve an associate degree or obtain a certificate.

Excelencia in Education
AAC&U has signed on to the Latino College Completion campaign launched by Excelencia in 2010 to collaborate to improve public policy and institutional practice to increase Latino student success to meet our country’s college completion goals.  Through multiple projects and campaigns, Excelencia in Education aims to accelerate higher education success for Latino students by providing data-driven analysis of the educational status of Latino students and by promoting education policies and institutional practices that support their academic achievement.

National Gallery of Writing
An initiative of the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Gallery of Writing is a Web site where people who perhaps have never thought of themselves as writers—mothers, bus drivers, fathers, veterans, nurses, firefighters, sanitation workers, stockbrokers—select and post one thing they have written that is important to them. The gallery features several types of display spaces that can accommodate any composition format and all types of writing. As a National Partner participating in this initiative, AAC&U hosts its own gallery focused on the meaning of liberal education in the twenty-first century.

National Humanities Alliance (NHA)
AAC&U is a founding member of the NHA—a coalition of more than eighty associations concerned with national humanities policy—and AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider serves on its board of directors. The NHA advocates for support for humanities research and represents its members in matters of policy or legislation affecting work in the humanities. NHA is the only organization that represents the U.S. humanities community as a whole.

National Institute for Learning Outcome Assessment
The overarching goal of The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) is to facilitate the dissemination and adoption of promising practices in the assessment of college learning outcomes. The Coalition's focus is on helping institutions use assessment date internally to inform and strengthen undergraduate education and externally in communication with external stakeholders―families and students, policy makers, accrediting groups, and others. Led by George Kuh (Indiana University) and Stan Ikenberry (University of Illinois), NILOA is guided by a National Advisory Panel, of which the AAC&U president is a member. NILOA is supported by the Lumina Foundation, the Teagle Foundation, and other funders.

Pathways to College Network
Pathways to College Network is a coalition of thirty organizations and fifteen foundations promoting college access and high achievement for underserved students, including low-income students, underrepresented minority students, students with disabilities, and first-generation college-going students. AAC&U is the lead partner for the eleven-member College Access and Success Working Group. This group aims to help postsecondary education leaders engage their entire campus community in translating "what works" for underserved student success into comprehensive educational practice.

Personal and Social Responsibility Inventory (PSRI)
The Personal and Social Responsibility Inventory (PSRI) is a campus climate survey originally developed as part of Core Commitments: Educating Students for Personal and Social Responsibility, an AAC&U initiative directed by Caryn McTighe Musil and supported by the John Templeton Foundation. Created in 2006 by L. Lee Knefelkamp (in consultation with Richard Hersh and with the research assistance of Lauren Ruff) and refined first by Eric L. Dey and associates and then by Robert D. Reason, the PSRI is now administered by the Research Institute for Studies in Education at Iowa State University.

Washington Internship Institute (WII)
AAC&U cooperates with WII on the Faculty Fellows Internship Program. Through professional internship opportunities, the Faculty Fellows Internship Program enables college and university faculty to broaden their professional, disciplinary, and personal horizons by working for one semester in Washington, DC. Fellows are immersed in a professional environment, such as a government agency, nonprofit organization, national association, museum, or foundation.