READY OR NOT
Global Challenges, College Learning, and America’s Promise

January 21-24, 2009
Seattle, Washington

CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Download the print version of the Final Program (pdf)
CONFERENCE PODCASTS
Plenary and selected breakout sessions available

THURSDAY, 7:00-8:30 am

Networking Breakfast for Women Faculty and Administrators
"A Measure of Equity: How Are Women in the Academy Doing?"
Judy Touchton, author of AAC&U’s new status report on women, A Measure of Equity, and founder of WomenLeadersMove.com.

Breakfast Discussion:
Pedagogy and the “Big Questions”: Dealing with Religious Commitments in the Classroom
Discussion Leader: Norman Adler, University Professor, Yeshiva University

THURSDAY, 8:45-10:15 am

Opening Plenary
Leadership in an Era of Urgency
Higher learning has never been more central to our nation’s prospects. The new press for innovation and creativity in the economy; the new urgency of our global, civic and sustainability challenges—all make the quality of student accomplishment a topic of intense public and policy concern. But as public debates roil, higher education has been more reactive than proactive on the question of how best to ensure that today’s students are fully prepared for a fast-paced future. As the heads of two major educational associations, Molly Broad and Carol Schneider will call on education leaders to vigorously “take the lead” in shaping educational priorities worthy of a great democracy.
Molly Corbett Broad, President, American Council on Education; Carol Geary Schneider, President, Association of American Colleges and Universities
Molly Broad Presentation (PowerPoint PDF)
Carol Schneider PowerPoint (PDF)

CONCURRENT SESSIONS - THURSDAY, 10:45 am-12:00 pm

Featured Session
Tearing Down the Gates: Confronting the Class Divide in American Education
Author Peter Sacks will discuss his book, Tearing Down the Gates: Confronting the Class Divide in American Education.  While we often hear about the growing divide between rich and poor in America, Sacks locates the source of this trend where we might least expect to find it – in our schools and colleges. Telling the stories of young people and families as they struggle to negotiate the educational system, Sacks creates a powerful indictment of American education that shows how schools, colleges, and universities exacerbate inequality by providing ample opportunities for advantaged students while shutting the gates on the poor – and even the middle class.  At the heart of this book is the question of justice, and Sacks demands that we take a hard look at what equal opportunity really means in the United States today.
Peter Sacks, essayist and social critic, is author of Tearing Down The Gates (University of California Press, 2007) and Standardized Minds: The High Price Of America’s Testing Culture And What We Can Do To Change It (Da Capo Press, 1999)

Featured Session
Liberal Education:  What, Why, and How?
This session will explore a broad formulation of liberal education and address the significance of that formulation for curriculum, teaching, institutional culture, and assessment in higher education.  If transformational liberal education requires engaging the whole student across the educational experience, how can colleges and universities renew strategy and allocate resources effectively to support it?  How can assessment be used to improve student learning and strengthen a transformational learning environment?  How can institutions use the promise of liberal education to prepare competent, flexible graduates with a broad spectrum of transferable skills for life, civic participation, and work?
Carol Geary Schneider, President, AAC&U; Richard H. Hersh, Senior Fellow, Council for Aid to Education; Richard P. Keeling, Principal and Senior Executive Consultant, Richard P. Keeling & Associates, Inc.; Richard Shavelson, Professor of Education, Stanford University

Featured Session
Pedagogies of Engagement and Collaborative Initiatives
Academic and corporate communities agree on the urgent need for contemporary, research-based pedagogies of engagement in STEM fields. Participants will learn how leaders from academic departments and institutions have collaborated with leaders from the corporate and business community in regional networks to ensure that graduates meet the expectations of prospective employers and the public. Such graduates must demonstrate higher-order thinking skills and the ability to solve problems within diverse, multidisciplinary teams. Collaborating partners within PKAL’s NSF-funded Pedagogies of Engagement initiative will share their experiences and lead discussion.
Judith Greiman, President, Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges; Jeanne L. Narum, Director, Project Kaleidoscope; James Swartz, Dack Professor of Chemistry, Grinnell College, and Project Kaleidoscope Pedagogies of Engagement Project Coordinator

This session is sponsored by Project Kaleidoscope

Featured Session
Faculty of the Future:  Voices from the Next Generation
Since 1996, K. Patricia Cross, a distinguished scholar in American higher education, has sponsored the K. Patricia Cross Future Leader Awards. Graduate students are selected for this honor for their outstanding work in undergraduate teaching, their excellence in research, their active engagement in civic and university programs, and their commitment to a career in higher education. Recipients of the 2009 Cross Award will explore with the audience topics such as teaching and learning at the undergraduate level, the role of their disciplines, their views of today’s college students, and their views of the changing American academy. Welcome:  K. Patricia Cross, David Gardner Professor of Higher Education, Emerita, University of California, Berkeley; Moderators:  L. Lee Knefelkamp, Professor of Psychology and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University; Jerry Gaff, Senior Scholar, AAC&U

Recipients of the 2009 K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award

• Holly Bruland, English, University of Hawai'i at Manoa
• Cara Gormally, Plant Biology, University of Georgia
• Mitchel T. Keller, Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Tessa Lowinske Desmond, Literary Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Tamara Mann, History, Columbia University
• Elizabeth Munz, Communication, Purdue University
• Geoff Preidis, Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine
• Marcella Runell-Hall, Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• Lisa Thornhill, Language and Rhetoric, University of Washington, Seattle
• Kyle Whyte, Philosophy and American Indian Studies, Stony Brook University

Improving Teaching and Learning:  Faculty, Academic Leaders and Faculty Developers as Partners
This interactive session is designed to assist faculty and administrators interested in (1) establishing and/or sustaining programs to stimulate, support and reward faculty efforts to enhance student learning, and (2) creating strong and effective partnerships among faculty, academic leaders, and faculty developers to enhance teaching, learning and faculty development on their campus.
Constance Ewing Cook, Associate Vice Provost and Executive Director, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan; Virginia S. Lee, Senior Consultant, Virginia S. Lee & Associates, LLC, and President, POD Network in Higher Education; Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Associate Provost and Director, Office of Faculty Development , University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Sorcinelli PowerPoint (PDF)
POD Session references (PDF)

This session is sponsored by the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education

Using student views about “Big Questions” to Promote Global Learning and Development
Academic leaders at three colleges will describe how they use student views about “Big Questions” such “How do I know? Who am I? and How do I relate to others?” to examine and plan for enhancing their collegiate environment to more effectively promote global learning and development. Participants will view national norms from the Global Perspective Inventory and discuss how their students would view the “Big Questions” and how they can promote global citizenship.
Larry A. Braskamp, Professor Emeritus, Loyola University Chicago; Lyn Isaacson, Assistant Academic Dean, Central College; Alzada Tipton, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Elmhurst College; Robert D. Haak, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Augustana College
Handout - Integration of SA into Core (PDF)

Approaches to the Overseas Experience:  Three Different Success Stories
There seems to be widespread agreement that a period of overseas study is an integral part of a liberal education today, but how should that overseas experience be structured?  This panel will focus on best practices for the design and administration of overseas programs.  Members of the audience will have the opportunity to compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of the different models of overseas program.
Gregory S. Mahler, Academic Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Patricia Lamson, Director of International Programs – both of Earlham College; Elizabeth Brewer, Director of International Education, Beloit College; Joseph Brockington, Associate Provost for International Programs, Kalamazoo College
HANDOUT: Approaches to the Overseas Experience (PDF)
Kalamazoo PowerPoint (PDF)

Leadership Studies, the Liberal Arts, and Engaged Students
This session explores how programs in leadership studies at a diverse set of institutions are used to promote engaged citizenship among students.  By integrating leadership studies with the liberal arts and by engaging students in action -- internships, service learning, study abroad, leadership training or otherwise -- leadership programs serve the dual purpose of promoting individual responsibility and learning while they also serve the public good characterized by an engaged and active citizenship.
Sandra J. Peart, Dean, Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond; Ronald Riggio, Henry Kravis Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology and Director of the Kravis Leadership Institute, Claremont McKenna College; Gama Perruci, Dean of the McDonough Center for Leadership and Business, Marietta College; Candice Hironaka, Associate Director, School of Leadership Studies, Kansas State University; Colonel Dave Miller, Interim Director for the Rice Center for Leadership, Virginia Tech
PowerPoint presentation 19 Jan 09

Disciplines and Interdisciplinary Studies:  Our Achilles Heel
The widespread interest in “interdisciplinary studies” reflects both a critical and constructive response to the limitations of disciplines, and an interest in exploring new, and more adequate, models for integrated learning and civic engagement. On this panel, we will consider what is both encouraging and troubling in the current efforts toward interdisciplinary studies. The schools represented all have interdisciplinary studies as their primary mode of teaching and learning, while each is also distinctive in its approach. We will draw on our experiences as faculty members and academic administrators along with ethnographic data collected from students and faculty at our colleges over the last 18 months to consider questions like the following: What do students and faculty members say is the most powerful experience for them doing interdisciplinary studies? How can these experiences shape our understanding of interdisciplinary studies and guide our future work as educators? What have we found to be the most authentic means of planning and assessing interdisciplinary learning and scholarship? What are the principles, practices and conditions crucial to engage in interdisciplinary teaching and learning?
Rita Pougiales, Member of the Faculty, The Evergreen State College; Don Bantz, Provost and Academic Vice President, The Evergreen State College; Brenda Foley, Professor of Theatre, Marlboro College; Roger Gilman, Academic Dean, Fairhaven College

Twin Sons of Different Mothers: Science and the Humanities in General Education
Science and the humanities are too often seen as opposites. In our presentation, we show how they are really two sides of the same coin, and discuss how to integrate them into a cohesive general education system. We discuss pedagogy, classroom dynamics, texts, and above all how to create an intellectual atmosphere that establishes both science and the humanities as essential parts of learning.
Robert R. Mayer, Assistant Professor and Core Development Team, Core Division; David Kite, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Core Development Team, Core Division; and Jennifer Vincent, Assistant Professor of Economics and Core Development Team, Business Division – all of Champlain College

Technology for Globalization and Education
Although technology, the engine that is driving processes of globalization, would seem to offer higher education solutions for preparing students to be citizens of the world, adoption of technology at liberal arts institutions has been uneven.  This session looks at uses of technology in liberal arts education to provide students with a more international perspective of the world and uses these cases to examine the challenges and rewards of technology use in this area.
Rebecca Davis, Associate Director, NITLE Programs, National Institute for Technology & Liberal Education; Michael Toler, Chief Program Officer, National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education; Michel Rocchi, Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Puget Sound
Technology for Globalization PowerPoint (PDF)
Handout (PDF)
PresentationMusharaka (PDF of PowerPoint)

Promoting History and Liberal Learning in Community Colleges
This session focuses on the work historians who teach at Seattle area community colleges have been doing to improve history teaching and liberal learning in their classrooms. After making brief presentations about what they do individually and collectively, they and their students will answer questions about their classes, program designs, curricular materials, and teaching strategies, as well as their successes, failures, challenges, and collaborations.
Maureen Murphy Nutting, Professor of History, Cleo Faraone, Student, William Singer, Student, and Bernard Dioguardi, Student -- all of North Seattle Community College; Timothy McMannon, History Department Coordinator, Highline Community College; Amy Kinsel, Professor of History, Shoreline Community College; Brian Casserly, Part-time Lecturer, Department of History, University of Washington Seattle
Additional resources available here.

ACAD Session:
The Dean’s Role in Building an Undergraduate Research Program
Through briefly described examples of the dean’s roles at different institutions and through small-group work on case studies of challenges and opportunities, this session will explore the dean’s role in building or strengthening undergraduate research.
Neal B. Abraham, Executive Vice President, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty, DePauw University; Lori Bettison-Varga, Provost and Dean of Faculty, Whitman College; Mary Ellen O'Keeffe, Vice President for Instruction, and Peter H. Lortz, Dean, Math, Science, & Social Sciences Division both from North Seattle Community College

THURSDAY, 12:00-1:30 p.m.

Networking Luncheon for Faculty and Administrators of Color
"Integrating Minority Males into the Higher Education Pipeline"
Ronald Williams, Vice President, The College Board

CONCURRENT SESSIONS - THURSDAY, 1:30-2:30 pm

Featured Session
The Assessment Imperative in Liberal Education
This session explores the notion that assessment for transformational learning is best utilized as a learning tool. By providing timely, transparent, and appropriate feedback, both to students and to the institution itself, learning is enhanced – a far different motive for assessment than is external accountability.
Richard H. Hersh, Senior Fellow, Council for Aid to Education; Richard Shavelson, Professor of Education, Stanford University

Featured Session
2008 Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service-Learning
Communities and Physicians Together: Supporting Communities through Service Learning
In partnership with Campus Compact, AAC&U welcomes Richard Pan, recipient of the 2008 Ehrlich Award.  Each year, Campus Compact recognizes and honors one faculty member for contributing to the integration of community or public service into the curriculum and for efforts to institutionalize service-learning.  The award is named in honor of Thomas Ehrlich, former Chair of the Campus Compact board of directors and President Emeritus of Indiana University.  Professor Pan will discuss the reflective teaching methods used to prepare students to recognize and mobilize community assets as they design, implement, and evaluate projects to improve public health. Dr. Pan will also talk about strategies for breaking down cultural barriers.
Richard Pan, Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and founder and Director of Communities and Physicians Together, University of California-Davis
This session is sponsored by Campus Compact

Educating for Democratic Dispositions: Can It Be Done?
Educating responsible global citizens is an historic part of higher education’s mission and seems more critical than ever in a diverse U.S. democracy and a world marked by political turmoil.  However, this lofty goal is surprisingly unrealized on college campuses, either for civic or educational purposes.  You are invited to share what works on your campus and listen to others describe powerful educational designs that exploit the convergences between liberal education outcomes, democracy, diversity, and civic practice.
Moderator:  Caryn McTighe Musil, Senior Vice President, AAC&U, and Steering Committee Member, The International Consortium for Higher Education, Civic Responsibility, and Democracy
Panelists:  Brian Murphy, President, De Anza Community College; Nancy Wilson, Director and Associate Dean, Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, Tufts University

Preparation for College: Findings from the 2008 CIRP Freshman Survey
Are our incoming students prepared for college? The Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey annually examines the academic habits of mind of entering first-year students.  Along with academic involvement, the survey examines diversity, civic engagement, college admissions and expectations of college.  Presenters will compare and contrast results from the entering 2008 first-year class at approximately 600 four-year institutions in the United States these with those from approximately 13 million previous respondents to the survey.
John H. Pryor, Director, Cooperative Institutional Research Program, and Sylvia Hurtado, Director and Professor, Higher Education Research Institute, University of California-Los Angeles

Funding Liberal Education in an Era of Uncertainty
Funding patterns within higher education are changing. Endowment policies are under political attack. Public institutions are relying more and more on private donors. Private institutions are finding more and more competition for less readily available private funds. Core institutional functions, including liberal education programs, are becoming less appealing to donors than special projects and construction-based naming opportunities. This session will examine the funding prospects for liberal education from the perspectives of the changing and unscripted universe of federal and private grant-makers, endowment and capital campaign consultants, and institutional grant-writing experts.
Frederick Winter, Senior Director of Advancement and Leadership Development, AAC&U; Carol A. Kolmerten, Professor of English, Hood College; Stephen Ross, Director, Office of Challenge Grants, National Endowment for the Humanities

Using Electronic Portfolios to Assess Student Learning as a Result of Undergraduate Research
This session will focus on a national project (funded by a major NSF grant and led by IUPUI) to use ePortfolios to enhance and assess intellectual growth resulting from students’ participation in undergraduate research programs. The project aims to promote faculty and student assessment of undergraduate research products in relation to outcomes associated with basic research skills and general undergraduate learning principles (communication and quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and integration and application of knowledge).
Kathryn J. Wilson, Executive Director, Center for Research and Learning, Elizabeth Rubens, Director of Assessment, Center for Research and Learning, and Susan Kahn, Director of IUPUI ePort and Director, Office of Institutional Effectiveness – all of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Electronic Portfolio PowerPoint (PDF)

Using Student Ratings
This session will identify specific uses of data from IDEA at the University of Charleston. Simple numeric analysis of data from IDEA will be connected to other data such as the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The use of IDEA as part of a comprehensive faculty performance review will be discussed. Identification of indicators for curricular change and for faculty development will also be investigated.
Alan Belcher, Assistant Provost for Curriculum and Technology, University of Charleston; Sally Garvin, Senior Program Administrator, The IDEA Center
This session is sponsored by The IDEA Center. 

20/20 Session: Creative Collaborative Partnerships / Academic Management

Creating a Culture of Academic Affairs-Student Development Partnership
In this session, academic and student development administrators will discuss their approach to building effective programs and a renewed successful partnership to meet the demands of education in the 21st century.  This session will highlight the essentials for a successful teaming of student development and academic affairs in broad administrative terms – such as leadership, shared vision, communication and mutual respect – and will detail the particular success of a new program, including strategies for creating greater community among faculty and student development staff and the role of new technologies in these efforts.
Susan K. Johnson, Associate Dean, School of Arts & Sciences, and Steve Bisese, Vice President, Student Development -- both of the University of Richmond

The Dean Partnership: A Cross-Disciplinary Academic Leadership Model
An examination of the cross-disciplinary model of the "dean partnership" for an academic division: redefinition of traditional, silo-based management, reconceptualization of traditional faculty roles, and institutional response. The dean partnership was a collaborative management model in practice and a visible example of teamwork in action.
E. Byron Chew, Monaghan Professor of Management, Birmingham-Southern College; Cecilia McInnis-Bowers, Professor of International Business, Rollins College
2009 aacu dean partnership presentation Chew and McInnis-Bowers(PDF of PowerPoint)
Academic Leader Article(PDF)

Promoting Liberal Arts Learning and Preparing the Global Citizen at the Community College
The global issues we face—health and environmental risk, climate change and sustainability, civil and social conflict— focus our students' attention on contemporary events and how they affect lives in local communities. They focus educators on the magnitude of the challenge to prepare an ever-increasingly diverse, globally-connected student body with the knowledge, ability, processes, and confidence to adapt to diverse environments and respond creatively to the enormous issues facing humankind. Global challenges demand that we reach across boundaries. These priorities guide Bellevue Community College’s (BCC) efforts to develop, grow, and diversify curriculum, programs, cultural exchanges, campus life, and faculty and staff. The college, through its Center for Liberal Arts, has been exploring the significance and relevancy of liberal arts learning to contemporary life and work, which means preparing diverse students for the demands and opportunities of a globally-connected reality.
Star Hang Nga Rush, Director of the Center for Liberal Arts, and Faisal Jaswal, Assistant Dean of Student Programs -- both of Bellevue Community College

The China Challenge and American Higher Education
This dialog and discussion session will focus on how to increase awareness of China in American higher education so that our students will be able to face future challenges raised by China and its fast-growing economy. It will discuss the pros and cons of three institutions’ participation in the Sino-American 1-2-1 program sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and China Center for International Education Exchange (CCIEE). The session hopes to inspire an engaged learning of global affairs through the promotion of the Chinese student and faculty exchanges and curriculum development on Chinese studies. Through similar programs of global connection, American higher education will be able to stay on the forefront of leadership education in the 21st century.
Li  Li, Professor of History, and Marc Glasser, Dean of Graduate School – both of Salem State College; Shu-Chuan Cheng, Chinese Programs Coordinator, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire; Madelyn Ross, Director of China Initiatives, George Mason University

Becoming Cosmopolitan: At the Core, as a Community, and in the Classroom
Dedicated to the practical and moral ends of global citizenship, cosmopolitanism offers a compelling framework and language for efforts to imagine a more 'outward-looking' culture and curriculum in higher education.  In this panel presentation, Otterbein College administrators and faculty will explore the value of foregrounding cosmopolitan commitments in global learning goals, pedagogies, and institutional priorities.   The presentation also will open peer conversation on the effort to align practice and principle, core values and core curriculum, in the service of a 21st century cosmopolitan ethic.
Tammy Birk, Assistant Professor, English, Abiodun Goke-Pariola, Dean of College and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Amy Jessen-Marshall, Chair, Integrative Studies program and Associate Professor, Life and Earth Sciences, and Suzanne Ashworth, Associate Professor, English – all of Otterbein College

20/20 Session: Working With What You Have

Small Budgets, Big Impact:  How To Leverage Networks, Partners, And Creativity For Major Project Success
One challenge of civic engagement in the co-curriculum is the merging of cost and outcome: creating meaningful experiences for students and the community with small staffs, on small budgets, while still having significant, purposeful impact.  This 20/20 session will share proven strategies for success and community change. Come prepared to generate new ideas together and to share your own techniques for implementing effective projects and co-curricular programs on $2000 or less.
Allyson M. Lowe, Director, Pennsylvania Center for Women, Politics & Public Policy, and Mary Whitney, Program Specialist, Rachel Carson Institute – both of Chatham University

 Focusing On Values:  The Politics And Process Of Campus Change
The most powerful agents for change are those initiatives which embody campus values.  Through an overtly political process, a university can use its common values to both mediate and come to concord in areas of disagreement.  Insights gained from reform efforts at Northern Arizona University will serve as examples.  Focus is on etching campus values in the curriculum, assessing the political landscape, insuring that the political process for change embodies campus values, and selling change.
Blase S Scarnati, Director of the First Year Seminar Program, Northern Arizona University

Action Reflective Enquiry as a model of Academic Assessment
Haifa Reda Jamal Al-lail, Dean of Effat College, and Elisabeth Noble, Vice Dean of Institutional Planning and Quality Control -- both of Effat College

Who Owns the Curriculum?  Ideology and Partnerships in Liberal Education
This session will explore the tensions between a)claims that faculty are the sole arbiters of what constitutes a liberal education and b) counter claims that student life professionals also possess the knowledge and expertise critical to defining students’ total learning experiences.   Current and past claims by such organizations as the National Association of Scholars (NAS) will be examined in light of alternative positions advocated by the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) as well as AAC&U.
Michele Holt-Shannon, Administrative Director, UNH Discovery Program, and Bruce Mallory, Provost and Executive Vice President – both of University of New Hampshire; Keith Edwards, Director of Campus Life, Macalester College; Richard Keeling, Principal, Keeling & Associates

ACAD Session:
“I am less patient and dress better”:  Exploring the Career and Life Transitions of the Academic Administrator
Framed around a study of 62 members of the American Conference of Academic Deans, in this session attendees will reflect on their own transitional issues into administrative work.  Issues such as previous experiences impacting work, disappointments and surprises since taking on administrative work, and changes (in manner of dress, personal interests) will be addressed. 
Jeffrey R. Breese, Associate Dean, School of Education & Human Services, Marymount University

CONCURRENT SESSIONS - THURSDAY, 2:45-4:00 pm

Featured Session
Making Learning Outcomes Usable and Transparent: Mapping the Territory, Documenting the Journey
Through LEAP and its sponsorship of The New Leadership Initiative, AAC&U is playing a prominent role in helping institutions respond to calls for more attention to the assessment of student learning.  This session introduces a three-year national effort to document how colleges and universities are using assessment data to improve teaching and learning and to facilitate the dissemination and adoption of best practices in the assessment of college learning outcomes.  Panelists will describe the project and discuss its benefits for institutions and policy makers. 
Stanley Ikenberry, Regent Professor and President Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; George Kuh, Chancellor’s Professor and Director, Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research; Molly Corbett Broad, president, American Council on Education; Judith Eaton, president, Council for Higher Education Accreditation; David Paris, Leonard C. Ferguson Professor of Government, Hamilton College, and Senior Fellow, AAC&U

Featured Session
Leadership in Shaping Interdisciplinary STEM Learning Environments
Achieving an effective interdisciplinary (ID) environment for undergraduate STEM learning requires attention to: programmatic implications of an ID curriculum; institutional policies for building a faculty, developing budgets, shaping spaces; and understanding how people learn in such environments. Participants will explore promising practices in establishing introductory ID courses; developing ID programs such as environmental science, health and society; and creating institution-wide ID initiatives. Panelists will discuss lessons learned from the PKAL ID Initiative, funded by the Keck Foundation.
Susan Elrod, Professor of Biological Sciences and Director, Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education, California Polytechnic State University; Michael Kerchner, Associate Professor of Psychology, Washington College; Stephanie Pfirman, Hirschorn Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Science, Barnard College

This session is sponsored by Project Kaleidoscope

Moving Engaged Learning from the Fringes to the Center of the Undergraduate Experience: Diverse Perspectives and Strategies
Engaged learning is particularly effective for achieving the goals of a 21st century education. Exciting pedagogies of engagement abound, including undergraduate research, community-engaged learning, interdisciplinary exploration, and international study.  However, such experiences are typically optional and non-credit-bearing for students, and/or “on top of” the workload for faculty. This session explores strategies for integrating engaged learning into the institutional fabric (curriculum, student role, faculty role) and increasing access to these transformative experiences. The presenters represent a range of leaders, institutions, and disciplines.
Elizabeth L. Paul, Vice Provost, and Jeffrey Osborn, Dean, School of Science – both of The College of New Jersey; MaryAnn Baenninger, President, College of Saint Benedict; Anne Kress, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Santa Fe Community College

Innovations in General Education Reform and the Challenges of Assessment
Three ANAC colleges recently renovated their general education requirements.  Each developed innovative approaches to engage stakeholders in the reform process and successfully transformed their established general education programs while maintaining significant faculty support and minimizing serious conflict. The current challenge involves devising meaningful procedures to assess student learning in these new programs.  The session will provide an overview of the strategies each university pursued and detail the challenges these newly reformed programs pose for assessment. Participants will be invited to discuss challenges encountered at their institutions and brainstorm possible solutions, with a particular emphasis on the sharing of portable assessment ideas.
Moderator:  Roy Austensen, Provost, Valparaiso University
Panelists:  Ed Wingenbach, Chair, Department of Government, University of Redlands; Piers Britton, Chair, Department of Art History, University of Redlands; Jean Schwind, Associate Professor of English, Elon University; Andrea Crivelli-Kovach, Associate Professor and Director of Community Health Programs, Arcadia University
Meaningful GE Reform PowerPoint (PDF)
Arcadia PowerPoint (PDF)
Interdisciplinary Framework PowerPoint (PDF)

This session is sponsored by the Associated New American Colleges

Innovations to Sustainable Education
While some colleges are developing science courses that emphasize global climate change and its impact on ecosystems, colleges can do far more to integrate sustainability concepts into the very fabric of their institutions. Ultimately students must be engaged in this process on all levels within the college. COPLAC institutions are diffusing sustainability into curricula and their missions at a fundamental level, engaging students, graduate students, and their communities to seek powerful alternatives in thinking and behavior.
Michael Patton, Professor of Philosophy, University of Montevallo; Fred Loxsom, Professor of Sustainable Energy Studies, Eastern Connecticut State University; Mike Edelstein, Professor of Environmental Psychology, Ramapo College of New Jersey

This session is sponsored by the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges

Hands on Collaborative Learning in Large Enrollment Classes: Next Generation Course Redesign
We know that hands-on experiential learning, especially in collaboration with other students, is a superior pedagogy but how can this be provided in increasingly larger introductory classes?  The Next Generation Course Redesign™ Project brings together faculty from a variety of disciplines who work within a Community of Practice to completely redesign, without increasing instructional costs, five large enrollment introductory classes each year. This panel presentation will introduce the Next Generation Course Redesign Process™ and will showcase courses that combine large and small group work with online activities to enhance and assess student learning outcomes.  
Philip M. Turner, Vice Provost for Learning Enhancement, Kelly McMichael, Associate Director of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, and Tracey Gau, Lecturer, Department of English – all of the University of North Texas
Next Generation PowerPoint (PDF)
Quality Enhancement Plan PowerPoint (PDF)

The Guilds at Kalamazoo College:  Joining Passion and Professional Development
As educators seek innovative ways to manage knowledge and expand interdisciplinary attention to pressing global issues, as students and parents look for assurances that their tuition investment will pay professional dividends, and as alumni look for meaningful ways to give back to the institutions that nurtured and prepared them, colleges and universities can integrate these disparate goals through the Guilds, intergenerational membership networks that draw strength from the contributions of all of their members.
Joan Hawxhurst, Director of Guilds, Jeffrey Bartz, Associate Professor of Chemistry, and Aidis Tuxhari, Business Guild Student Coordinator and undergraduate student – all of Kalamazoo College; Emily Inlow-Hood, Communications Manager, WebJunction
Guilds Web Site

Sophomore Engagement and Advising as Learning
Under the aegis of a grant from the Teagle Foundation, Colorado College, Connecticut College, St. Lawrence University, and Skidmore College are working on a three-year project to study sophomore engagement with liberal learning. Initially sharing existing retention and NSSE data, we have developed a common Sophomore Engagement Survey administered to students at the end of the first year and we have each piloted advising programs aimed specifically at sophomores. Having just completed our initial year of the project, we will report our progress and initial findings.
Robert Thacker, Associate Dean for Academic Advising Programs and Professor of Canadian Studies, St. Lawrence University; Theresa Ammirati, Dean of Studies and the Freshman Year, Connecticut College; Michael Ennis-McMillan, Dean of Studies and Associate Professor of Anthropology, Skidmore College; Julie Stockenberg, Director of First-Year and Sophomore Studies and Advising, Colorado College

Establishing the Successful President/Provost Collaboration to Support Institutional Transformation
Participants will have a greater understanding of a president-provost collaboration and the elements that they see as critical to sustained institutional transformation. The elements include 1) Reviewing the institutional mission; 2) Creating a collaborative environment; 3) Establishing broad leadership and maintaining momentum; 4) Supporting committed and collaborative faculty; 5) Establishing professional development; 6) Identifying the student role; 7) Including administrative staff; 8) Engaging trustees; 9) Managing resources; 10) Attending to consistent and ongoing leadership.
Richard Guarasci, President, and Devorah Lieberman, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs – both of Wagner College
President and Provost Collaboration (PDF)

Learning, Action, and Place: Civic Engagement in Context
Civic engagement learning derives its power from the engagement of students with real communities—local, national, and global. This panel explores the relationship between student learning and the contexts in which that learning unfolds by examining programs that place students in diverse contexts close to campus and far afield. We will explore how our students interact with community partners and how diversity—of our students and of communities—relates to the design, implementation, and outcomes of these programs.
Moderator:  Andrew J. Seligsohn, Coordinator for Civic Engagement Learning, Princeton University
Panelists:  David Brown, Director, Student Volunteers Council, Princeton University; Nancy Wilson, Director and Associate Dean, Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, Tufts University; Eric Mlyn, Director, Duke Center for Civic Engagement/DukeEngage, Duke University; Margaret Turner, Professor of Art History, Massachusetts College of Art and Design

Assessing and Improving Information Literacy: The Research Practices Survey
Authentic evidence about the development of students’ information literacy is vital to improving this essential learning outcome.  This session introduces the Research Practices Survey, an on-line information literacy assessment instrument developed by an inter-institutional group of librarians, classroom faculty, assessment professionals, and technology professionals.  Results from survey administration in more than twenty liberal arts institutions in Fall 2006, Spring 2007, and Fall 2008 will be presented.  Participants will discuss implications for improving curriculum and instruction.
Jo M. Beld, Director of Evaluation and Assessment and Professor of Political Science, St. Olaf College 
Assessing and Improving Information Literacy PowerPoint (PDF)
Handout - Assessing and Improving Information Literacy (PDF)
Research Practices Survey Information (website)

Challenges to Re-Envisioning Liberal Arts through a Competency-Based Model
What challenges face Americans in the 21st century? What challenges face our educational institutions in demonstrating relevance in the 21st century? This panel will consider challenges facing competency-based institutions, particularly in Liberal Arts. Individuals from various institutions will discuss development of a Liberal Arts program at WGU, the impact of WGU’s challenges and successes on members’ home institutions, and the challenges of fulfilling the governors’ desire to create a relevant and revolutionary educational model.
Moderator: Peter Ewell Vice President of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems
Panelists: Gregory W. Fowler, Director of Liberal Arts, Education Without Boundaries, and Alumni Services, Western Governors University; Thomas Hilgers, Director, Manoa Writing Program, University of Hawaii at Manoa; William Macgregor, Professor of Professional and Technical Communications, Montana Tech of the University of Montana; David Porter, Professor of Psychology and former Provost, Berea College; Alison Regan, Director, Marriott Library Technology Assisted Curriculum Center, The University of Utah
WGU Agenda (PDF)
WGU at a Glance (PDF)
WGU PowerPoint Presentation (PDF)

ACAD Session:
Learning How to Work “In Between”: Entering the Associate Deanship
Associate Deans are often caught “in between” different parties.  In this session, participants will share their experiences and strategies for how to make a smooth transition into being a productive Associate Dean.  This session is specifically designed for those who are entering (or who have recently entered) Associate Dean positions.
James M. Sloat, Associate Dean for Assessment and New Initiatives, and Dana J. Shiller, Associate Dean of the Faculty –both of Washington & Jefferson College; Kathy Harring, Associate Dean of Institutional Assessment, Muhlenberg College; Gretchen McKay, Assistant to the President for Special Projects, McDaniel College

CONCURRENT SESSIONS - THURSDAY, 4:15-5:30 pm

Featured Session
Who Will Deliver on America's Promise:  The Future Professoriate
The academic workforce has changed; we now need a pragmatic model of "the faculty" -whoever they are - that can preserve what is best about the American academy in a period of global as well as national change. If contingent appointments and disaggregated work are irreversible realities, what new model of the professoriate might reasonably retain essential elements common to other professions? Among these common elements are intellectual knowledge about what it means to be a member of the profession (including, but certainly not limited to, disciplinary expertise); skills that enable success carrying out professional duties (in the case of faculty, in teaching and professional service as well as research); self- awareness of the values and attitudes we most associate with the life and practices of the profession; and work conditions befitting a professional.
William M. Plater, Chancellor's Professor, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis; Judith Gappa, Professor Emerita, Purdue University; Jack Schuster, Professor of Education and Public Policy, Claremont Graduate University
Plater Gappa Schuster Panel Resource List
PowerPoint (PDF)

Featured Session
Liberal Learning and Business Education
The Carnegie Foundation is currently studying how colleges and universities with business majors can ensure that undergraduate business students receive a good liberal-arts education.  Business is now the largest undergraduate major, and a disproportionate share of first-generation college students are choosing this major.  Presenters will briefly outline the study’s conceptual frame, methods, and preliminary findings, but the session will be devoted to structured inquiries on the views of participants – How they understand liberal education for business students and how they believe that education can be strengthened.
Anne Colby, Senior Scholar, Thomas Ehrlich, Senior Scholar, and William Sullivan – all of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
This session is sponsored by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

There’s No Dead Wood, Only Kindling: Engaging Emeriti Faculty in Institutional Reform
In addition to representing a growing cadre within higher education, recently retired and soon-to-retire faculty represent an important but untapped resource for campus reform. These senior members of the academic community bring unique depths of institutional experience to campus ventures, and they can be key participants in the conversation when reform and innovation are the agenda. This panel session at the AAC&U Annual Meeting will examine the role of senior and emeriti faculty in higher education reform.
Douglas Chalmers, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Executive Director, Society of Senior Scholars, Columbia University; Stanley Ikenberry, Regent Professor and President Emeritus of the University, University of Illinois, and past-president of the American Council on Education (ACE); Roger Martin, Professor of History Emeritus and past-president, Randolph-Macon College; author of Racing Odysseus: A College President Becomes a Freshman Again (University of California Press: 2008); Joseph S. Meisel, Program Officer, Research Universities & Humanistic Scholarship, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Elisabeth Zinser, Special Assistant to the Chancellor, Oregon University System

Bridging the Divide: Connecting Classroom Assessment with Institutional Assessment
For institutional assessment to make a difference for student learning its results must result in changes in classroom practice. This session explores ways in which the institutional assessment of student learning, such as the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education and the Collegiate Learning Assessment, can be connected to our classrooms. A representative from each national study will join two liberal arts college faculty members and administrators to discuss approaches to building this bridge.
David W Schodt, Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Innovation in the Liberal Arts, St. Olaf College; Charles Blaich, Director of Inquiries, Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, Wabash College; Marc Chun, Research Scientist, Council for Aid to Education; Elizabeth Ciner, Associate Dean of the College and Senior Lecturer in English, Carleton College
Bridging the Divide (PDF)

NSSE and LEAP—Compatibility and Connection with Core Learning Objectives
Colleges and universities face a challenge to develop deep understanding of the relationship between data and core learning objectives.   If institutions can use data instrumentally, then it can make a difference.  This session will highlight the alignment between NSSE and AAC&U’s LEAP initiative and examine how two campuses used NSSE to advance LEAP projects.  Presentation, activities, and exercises will support the application of these connections to the core learning objectives at session participants’ home institutions.
David Sill, Senior Scholar, Professor of Theater, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville; Jillian Kinzie, Associate Director, Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research; Scott Evenbeck, Dean, University College, IUPUI
NSSE and LEAPCompatibility and Connection with Core Learning (PDF of PowerPoint)

Building a Comprehensive Response to the Challenges of Globalization
This panel highlights the efforts of four institutions in the Consortium for Innovative Environments in Learning to operationalize what it means to be socially responsible members of a global society.  Approaches include fresh conceptualizations of global education, sequenced field and study abroad experiences, thematic learning, and assessment of learning outcomes.  As intentionally innovative institutions, these colleges have undertaken the challenge of getting beyond piecemeal offerings to make global education a cornerstone of academic work.
Edwin Clausen, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College, Daemen College; Kebokile Dengu-Zvobgo, Director of International Exchanges and Assistant Professor in Gender and Feminist Studies, and Tessa Hicks, Interim Director, Center for California Cultural and Social Issues and Visiting Lecturer, Urban Studies – both of Pitzer College; Roger Gilman, Dean, Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies; Jack Herring, Dean of the Resident Degree Program, Prescott College

Athletics and Academics at NCAA Division III Institutions: Data, Dialogue, and Decision-making
This panel addresses the relationship between athletics and undergraduate collegiate outcomes in general terms and in the context of the College Sports Project, an initiative of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The College Sports Project is currently working with more than 90 colleges to address what some see as a cultural divide between academics and intercollegiate athletics.
John D Emerson, Charles A Dana Professor of Mathematics, Middlebury College; William Adams, President, Colby College; Rachelle Brooks, Director, CSP Center for Data Collection & Analysis, Northwestern University; Bob Malekoff, Assistant. Professor of Sports Studies, Guilford College; Samuel Schuman, Chancellor Emeritus, The University of Minnesota, Morris
Schuman Presentation (PDF)
College Sports Project (PDF)

Mother Tongues and Alma Maters
English is not the first language for increasing numbers of our students, both immigrant and native-born. In a collaborative project involving five institutions, we have discovered surprising data, outdated assumptions, and policy barriers affecting the access and success of these underserved students. Based on this completed research, we are developing an innovative, holistic, and collaborative response. Participants will explore their own institution’s readiness by discussing key findings from student surveys, literature reviews, and institutional assessments.
Marla Martin Hanley, Associate Dean for Integrated Learning, College of Saint Catherine; Bridget Robinson-Riegler, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, Augsburg College; Karen Hynick, Dean of Academic Affairs, Minneapolis Community & Technical College

Taking Engagement to Scale:  Different Positions, Different Perspectives
This session will describe how universities can introduce, expand and sustain a culture of engagement in a variety of environments and in response to needs and interests of a variety of students and community organizations. We will illustrate these actions using Everett Rogers’ “Diffusion of Innovation” theory as applied to organizational change in support of engagement, providing four different organizational and positional perspectives. We will highlight what we have learned individually and collectively that will be useful to others on a similar organizational journey.
Sherril B. Gelmon, Professor of Public Health, Portland State University; Devorah Lieberman, Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Wagner College; Judith Ramaley, President, Winona State University; Susan Agre-Kippenhan, Dean, College of Arts and Architecture, Montana State University
Taking Engagement to Scale PowerPoint (PDF)

The Domino Effect: Connecting Institutions to Solve Transfer and Other General Education Issues
Modifying general education programs is a widespread challenge that often occurs simultaneously at different institutions. The process demands that educators develop mutually beneficial relationships to resolve such issues as transferability. This panel will reveal what one state university team learned from its visits to virtually all of the community colleges and other higher learning institutions in Nebraska regarding our shared goal of building excellent general education programs.
Nancy Mitchell, Interim Director of General Education, Professor of Advertising, JoAnn Moseman, Academic Transfer Coordinator, and Rita Kean, Dean, Undergraduate Studies – all of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Dianna Parmley, Dean of Educational Services, Central Community College-Columbus
Additional Information (website)
Domino Effect PowerPoint

Interdisciplinary, Integrative Learning in Individualized Major Programs
Individualized major (IM) programs are sites of “engaged and practical liberal education.” Three program directors will discuss effective IM practices and learning outcomes. They will discuss how IM programs foster interdisciplinarity; imaginative, independent thinking; and integrative learning, as well as how IM students and graduates assess the nature and quality of their learning as IM students. Audience participants will be encouraged to comment on the relevance of IM goals and procedures to other undergraduate programs.
Daniel Gordon, Director of the Bachelor's Degree with Individual Concentration, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Ray Hedin, Director of the Individualized Major Program, Indiana University, Bloomington

Mathematics Preparation and Student Inclusion
Use of standardized exams for Initial placement in mathematics often casts mathematical skills in the role of spoiler.  Students that do not place into college level courses can face multiple semesters of remedial courses.  Moreover, these effects are often magnified among populations of low income, urban, underserved minorities.  We will present and discuss five interventions in placement and remediation with data on the resulting improvement of inclusion of underprepared students.
Stephen B. Aley, Interim Chair of Mathematics, Associate Dean of Science, and Nancy Marcus, Associate Dean of Science, Professor of Mathematics – both of the University of Texas at El Paso
Mathematics Preparation and Student Inclusion (PDF)

ACAD Session:
Models for International Partnerships in Higher Education
This session provides models of successful partnerships with Chinese universities and includes a top administrator from a Chinese university in the discussion.  These low profile, financially efficient partnerships have provided Valparaiso University a steady inflow of Chinese students, overseas experiences for students/faculty, new international programs, and a residential scholars program. 
Renu Juneja, Associate Provost, Zhimin Lin, Director, China Center, and David Rowland, Dean of Graduate Studies – all of Valparaiso University; President ZHANG, Libin, Zhejiang University of Technology
Recruiting International Students (PDF)

THURSDAY, 5:45-6:45 pm:

AAC&U Members' Meeting
All those attending from AAC&U member institutions are warmly invited to the annual members’ meeting. 

FRIDAY, JANUARY 23

7:00-8:30 am

• Networking Breakfast for Colleagues at Research Universities
• Networking Breakfast for Colleagues at Community Colleges
• ACAD Members’ Breakfast
• Presidents’ Breakfast Discussion

CONCURRENT SESSIONS - FRIDAY, 8:45-10:15 am

Featured Session
Insights into Service-Learning and the Liberal Education Imperative
Join a discussion with a panel of three Campus Compact Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service-Learning finalists, facilitated by the 2008 winner, Richard Pan of the University of California-Davis.  The panelists will discuss their experiences creating service-learning courses, considering their distinctive institutional, disciplinary, and community contexts and desired learning outcomes.  They will also address strategies for developing students' civic skills, knowledge, and commitments over time, facilitating open inquiry and active engagement across differences, and integrating the professional and democratic purposes of higher education.
Moderator:  Richard Pan, Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Interim Vice-Chair for Education and Pediatric Residency Program Director, and Director of Communities and Physicians Together, University of California-Davis
Panelists: Carol Ann Muller, Professor of Music, and Chair of Graduate Studies, Department of Music, University of Pennsylvania; Anne Statham, Professor of Sociology, and Director of Service Learning, University of Southern Indiana (formerly Professor of Sociology and founding Director of the Institute for Community Based Learning, University of Wisconsin-Parkside); and Wayne Tanna, Professor of Accounting, and Pre-Law Advisor, Chaminade University

Inclusive Excellence at Emerging Universities
This session features panelists from three relatively new institutions, each of which has faced challenges related to articulating institutional identity, building curricula, legislative engagement, logistical challenges, and relationships with other campuses or systems. The focus of the session will be on how these emerging universities have promoted high levels of academic achievement within a context of rapid institutional change.
Beth Rushing, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, and Ginger MacDonald, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs – both of University of Washington Tacoma; Charlene Callahan, Interim Director of Environmental Studies, New College of Florida; John Ellis Price, Vice Chancellor, University of North Texas Dallas

Learning Beyond the Classroom: Residential Education for Global Citizenship
Colleges and universities can capitalize on additional pedagogical tools to best develop citizens who are active and engaged in local, national, and global communities by designing intentional and purposeful engagement of students on issues of global citizenship in their lives beyond the classroom. This session will discuss general approaches to implementing residential curricula and explore in-depth the successes, struggles, and lessons learned at one institution to help participants consider their own holistic learning initiatives.
Keith Edwards, Director of Campus Life, Macalester College

P-20 and State Systems:  Strategies for Access, Movement, and Achievement

Welcome and Introductions: Susan Albertine, Senior Director, LEAP States Initiative, AAC&U

An Integrated Model for Competencies in Key P-20 Transitions
Missouri’s experiment with defining competencies for access to and exit from beginning collegiate general education courses in seven key disciplines demonstrates the need for a major paradigm shift and highlights collective responsibility across educational levels and sectors.  A systemic focus on key points of transition has also emphasizes assessment, transfer, dual credit, and general education policy review and development.   A long-term commitment for intentional learning has been set in motion.
Robert B. Stein, Commissioner for Higher Education, State of Missouri, and Hillary Fuhrman, Research Associate, Academic Affairs – both of the Missouri Department of Higher Education

Closing the Achievement Gap:  A System Approach
Like most states, Maryland has a significant gap in college participation and success rates between underrepresented minority and low-income students and the student population at large.  This presentation will focus on the methods and strategies developed by a public university system to collect data, set benchmarks, and develop strategies to cut the achievement gap in half by 2015.
Nancy S. Shapiro, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, University of Maryland College Park; John Wolfe, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dewayne Morgan, Graduate Research Assistant, and Danielle Susskind, Program Specialist – all of the University System of Maryland
P-20 and State Systems PowerPoint (PDF)

Writing Programs and Their Institutions: Promoting Productive Engagement
Writing programs are central to the general-education curricula of many American colleges and universities, but the relationships between these programs and the institutions they serve are often complicated and sometimes even vexed.  The goal of this Discussion Session is not merely to acknowledge the various factors that contribute to this situation but to consider concrete ways of fostering positive and productive engagement between writing programs and their institutions.
Moderator: Joseph Bizup, Assistant Dean and Director, College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program, Boston University
Panelists: David E. Schwalm, Dean (Emeritus), Applied Arts and Sciences, Arizona State University Polytechnic; Carol Rutz, Director of the College Writing Program, Carleton College; Joseph Janangelo, Associate Professor of English, Loyola University Chicago; Martha Townsend, Associate professor of English, University of Missouri; Joseph Gordon, Dean of Undergraduate Education and Deputy Dean, Yale College, Yale University
Boston University Writing Program

Models Promoting Religious Literacy Among Citizens Of A Global Society
Religious literacy has been touted as a necessary, yet neglected goal of American education in this diverse and global society. Moreover, developing curricular and co-curricular programming to meet this need carries unique concerns and considerations. Members of a recent Institute on Religion in Higher Education will facilitate discussions regarding the range of programs being developed on campuses nationally. Through interactive exercises, participants will explore initiatives to pursue at their institutions toward increasing student religious literacy.
Miriam Rosalyn Diamond, Coordinator, Religion and Public Life Program, Society for Values in Higher Education; Marvin Kaiser, Dean, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Portland State University; Joanna Royce-Davis, Dean of Students and Associate Professor, Educational Administration and Leadership, and Charles Bolton, Interfaith Council Coordinator – both of University of the Pacific
This session is sponsored by the Society for Values in Higher Education
religious_literacy aacu slides1 (PDF)

Looking Beneath the Surface of Community College Transfer Policies
Recent research suggests that the presence of a state articulation and transfer policy does not increase the transfer rate of community college students to four-year institutions.  However, all such policies are not the same - so we must account for more than just the presence of these policies when assessing their impact, and account for the mechanisms through which they encourage or facilitate student transfers.  This paper attempts to address this gap by exploring not only the opportunities created by state articulation policies, but also the relative importance of specific policy components (such as common course numbering or common general education requirements) on postsecondary outcomes.
Betheny Gross, Research Analyst, Center on Reinventing Public Education, University of Washington Bothell Campus
Community College Transfer and Articulation Policies: Looking Beneath the Surface (PDF Available)

How Do We Assess the LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes?
The ELOs articulate learning goals that reach beyond general education into the overall student experience in and out of the classroom. Having embraced these outcomes, many of us now face the challenge of identifying how and where our students develop these skills. The presenters of this session do not have “the answers” but invite participants to discuss and explore various assessment strategies in a workshop setting in which we can learn from each other.
Nancy J. Westphal-Johnson, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education  and Academic Administration , College of Letters and Science, Elaine Klein, Director, Academic Planning, Program Review and Assessment, College of Letters and Science, and Mo Bischof, Assistant Vice Provost; Co-Chair University Assessment Council – all of the University of Wisconsin-Madison
How Do We Assess (PDF)

Inclusive Leadership in the Academy: More Urgent than Ever
In the face of economic constraints and uncertainty, it is more important than ever that higher education’s leaders understand that a commitment to diversity is not an expendable line item.  Instead, it offers a means of weathering the crisis, while holding fast to education needed for an interdependent, complex, and often unstable world.  But how does one cultivate such leadership?  Building on the principles of Campus Women Lead, this interactive session focuses on the elements of inclusive leadership that help institutions achieve their missions.  Using a case study, participants will explore how to navigate the formal and informal operating systems, build stronger alliances across constituencies, and tap multiple cultural resources to sustain inclusive excellence.
Patricia M. Lowrie, Director, Women’s Resource Center, Michigan State University; Caryn McTighe Musil, Senior Vice President, AAC&U; Judith White, Executive Director, HERS (Higher Education Resource Services)

EPORTFOLIO FAIR
A series of presentations and demonstrations focusing on ePortfolios:

Welcome and Introductions:  Terrel Rhodes, Vice President for Quality, Curriculum, and Assessment, AAC&U

Fostering Integrative Learning in a Senior Capstone Seminar
This case study session highlights use of an ePortfolio to foster integrative thinking and learning in a senior English capstone seminar.  Students develop reflective portfolios organized around key learning outcomes to support connections across courses, disciplines, and other experiences and to articulate skills, abilities, and dispositions that will serve them as professionals, learners, and citizens beyond college.  The session includes examples of reflection prompts and a rubric describing development in reflective thinking.
Susan Kahn, Director of Institutional Effectiveness and Director of IUPUI ePort, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Kahn PowerPoint (PDF)
Development in Reflective Thinking (PDF)

Extending Beyond the Classroom to Prepare Kinesiology Students for Success in 21st Century Careers
The skills that this project seeks to foster in its students, as well as in its faculty, are: critical thinking and analytical reasoning, teamwork skills in diverse groups, written and oral communication, and applied knowledge in real-world settings.  Kinesiology programs and its assessment panel of professionals, students, and faculty is dedicated to preparing its students to succeed in a world much more complex than a multiple-choice test.
Kasee Hildenbrand, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology Programs, Washington State University; Judy Schultz, Instructor, Kinesiology Programs, Washington State University; Ashley Ater Kranov, Assistant Director, Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology, Washington State University

Reimagining The "Typical" Eportfolio Model
After a pilot in spring and summer of 2008, Macaulay Honors College at CUNY is set to introduce eportfolios college-wide.  Because of the unusual consortial nature of Macaulay, we have had to reimagine the "typical" eportfolio model.  This innovative redesign provides strategies for other institutions that may want to use eportfolios in a more creative and sustainable manner.
Sylvia Tomasch, Associate University Dean of Academic Affairs, City University of New York; Joseph Ugoretz, Director of Technology and Learning, Macaulay Honors College
Reimagining PowerPoint (PDF)

Learning as Scholarship: Developing Integrative Learning in the First Year and Beyond
This session will share faculty, librarian and student perspectives on a first-year transition program which allowed for integrative learning in academic and social/cultural contexts through the use of ePortfolios.   Students became “scholars of learning” as they developed the habits of mind for success at university and considered what it means to be responsible and engaged citizens by linking course and social learning experiences.  A framework for implementing the program will be provided.
Tracy Penny Light, Professor of History, and Lorna Rourke, Librarian – both of St. Jerome's University
Handout Learning as Scholarship (PDF)
RourkePennyLight presentation 2009 (PDF of PowerPoint)

Authentic Assessment of Learning in Global Contexts
Assessment of learning by a community inside and outside the classroom is a key component to developing students’ global competencies and building a strong relationship between college learning and society. This discussion will use questions from the AAC&U Call to explore learning portfolios and transformations of the grade book to support learners working simultaneously within the university and within their communities of practice.
Nils S Peterson, Assistant Director, Center for Teaching Learning and Technology, Gary Brown, Director, Center for Teaching Learning and Technology,Jayme Jacobson, Design Consultant, CTLT, and Theron DesRosier, Design Consultant, CTLT – all of Washington State University
ePortfolios Washington State (PDF)
WSU PowerPoint (PDF)
WSU Where are you on the spectrum (PDF)
harvesting_gradebook (website)

CONCURRENT SESSIONS - FRIDAY, 10:30-11:45 am

Featured Session
Show Me the Learning: Valid Assessment of Student Learning
AAC&U’s new initiative – VALUE: Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education – is a research and campus-based initiative designed to make the essential learning outcomes central to the educational experience.  It will generate leadership, recommendations, examples of best practices and curricular designs, and an assessment framework.  This session will introduce participants to this project, focusing on the development of rubrics for the essential learning outcomes and how they are being used to assess student learning through the work students do through the curriculum and co-curriculum. Examples of campus student e-portfolios, rubrics, and their use will be shared and demonstrated.
Terrel Rhodes, Vice President for Quality, Curriculum, and Assessment ; Ross Miller, Senior Director of Assessment for Learning, Wende Morgaine, Research Associate – all of AAC&U’s Office of Quality, Curriculum, and Assessment

Featured Session
Leadership Decision Making: Why We Err and What We Can Do About It
With so much at stake for our students and our institutions, leadership decision making in academia can be a risky and uncertain business. Human decision making is cognitively complex enough, involving argument making, heuristic thinking, and dominance structuring. Mix in the culture of the academy, and the opportunities for error multiply exponentially. This session will help participants anticipate and recognize the threats posed by some of the most dangerous sources of human decision making error.  The speakers will share easy and workable strategies that groups and individuals can use to protect against or mitigate the hazards.
Peter A. Facione and Noreen C. Facione – researchers, authors, and consultants – both of Measured Reasons LLC
How we err Handout

What AAC&U Can Do for You—What Do You Need from AAC&U?
This session will provide information about AAC&U’s three summer Institutes – on General Education, Greater Expectations (which focuses on raising the achievement levels of all students and making excellence inclusive), and Engaged Departments (new in 2009). Presenters willalso provide an overview of AAC&U’s grant–funded projects, specifically the Bringing Theory to Practice (BTtoP) project which provides support, on a rolling basis, for campus-based initiatives that demonstrate how engaged forms of learning directly contribute to students’ cognitive, emotional, and civic development. Participants are encouraged to let AAC&U know how we can better assist member campuses through our ongoing and grant-funded projects.
Alma R. Clayton-Pedersen, Vice President, Office of Education and Institutional Renewal and Director of Greater Expectations Institute, AAC&U; Ashley Finley, Assistant Professor of Sociology and BT to P Project Evaluator

Service Learning for Sustainable Change
How do colleges and universities ensure that their community service initiatives result in sustainable community impact while engaging issues of diversity, inequality, and interdependence? The three programs discussed here provide dynamic opportunities for students and faculty actively to engage in developing and executing applied research and advocacy projects that have ongoing impact at local, regional and national levels.  These New American Colleges and Universities will share examples of civic initiatives that have had sustainable impact and invite discussion of examples and challenges from participant’s institutions.
Moderator:  Devorah Lieberman, Provost, Wagner College
Panelists:  Larry Baas, Professor and the Chair of the Political Science Department and Director of the Community Research and Service Center, Valparaiso University; Gary Daynes, Associate Provost for Integrative Learning, Westminster College; Cassia Freedland, Director, Center for Leadership, Wagner College
Additional information from Valparaiso University (website)
Valparaiso Handout (PDF)

This session is sponsored by the Associated New American Colleges

The Biology Major: Undergraduate Research at Public Liberal Arts Colleges
Affording students an opportunity to engage in meaningful research at the undergraduate level is one of the hallmarks of the public liberal arts college. Faculty members at COPLAC institutions typically teach three to four courses per semester, thus the work of sponsoring and supervising undergraduate research projects demands innovative approaches to teaching and learning. This session will explore some of these innovations in the biology major.
Jeffrey Byrd, Aldom-Plansoen Distinguished Professor of Biology, St. Mary’s College of Maryland; Shere Byrd, Associate Professor of Biology, Fort Lewis College; Kevin Jansen, Associate Professor of Biology, University of Virginia College at Wise
This session is sponsored by the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges

A Conversation with Campus Compact's Engaged Scholars for New Perspectives in Higher Education
The purpose of this Panel Presentation is to explore the leadership challenges for community and civic engagement in higher education with Campus Compact’s Engaged Scholars for New Perspectives in Higher Education.  This session is intended to build on the conference theme of Civic, Diversity and Global Engagement by providing a forum for discussion about the challenges and opportunities faced by the next generation of leaders in American colleges and universities.
Chair:  Julie Plaut, Director of Academic Initiatives, Campus Compact
Engaged Scholars:  Elizabeth Carmichael Burton, Associate Director, Office of Citizenship and Service-Learning, Missouri State University; David Donahue, Associate Professor of Education, Mills College; Patrick Green, Director of Experiential Learning, Loyola University Chicago; Micki Meyer, Director of Community Engagement, Rollins College;  Margaret Post, Director, Donelan Office of Community Based Learning, College of the Holy Cross; Tania Mitchell, Director of Service Learning, Stanford University; Melissa Kesler Gilbert, Director, Center for Community Engagement, Otterbein College; and Mathew Johnson, Director, Presidential VISTA Fellows Program, Siena College
This session is sponsored by Campus Compact
Bios of Engaged Scholars (PDF)
California Campus Compact-Carnegie Foundation Faculty Fellows (PDF)

Students' Reflections on Online Reflective Writing and Other Strategies for 21st-Century Liberal Learning
In the 21st century, we are challenged to enhance students’ abilities to engage in critical reflection as a way of achieving deep, liberal learning. Students must have opportunities to practice reflective learning, and using online writing and other strategies can be powerful stimulants. The purpose of this interactive session is to explore ideas for how to embrace reflection to improve student learning. Student co-leaders will help encourage active conversation and sharing of ideas and resources.
John Zubizarreta, Director of Honors and Faculty Development, Diana Lynde, Student, Gergana Yaneva, Student, and Lindsay Johnson, Student – all of Columbia College
Student Reflections on Reflective Writing (PDF)
learningportfolio (website)

Using Technology to Teach a Diverse Course or Workshop
Instructors can use technology-enabled strategies to identify differences among students, respond to those differences, and sometimes take instructional advantage of them.  We will discuss how to disseminate techniques such as online surveys, ‘clickers,’ online discussion, and using the web to provide alternate assignments.
Stephen C. Ehrmann, Vice President, The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Group; Naomi Story, Director of the Center for Learning and Instruction, Mesa Community College
PowerPoint Diversity-AACU2009

Language, Literature, and Liberal Education: The Report of the MLA Teagle Working Group
A committee of the Modern Language Association reports on its Teagle Foundation-supported discussions of the difficulties and possibilities for major programs in language and literature and liberal arts education in the changing landscape of higher education.
Rosemary G. Feal, Executive Director, Modern Language Association; Michael Holquist, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature, Yale University; David Marshall, Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts, University of California, Santa Barbara; Jenifer Ward, Associate Provost, Cornish College of the Arts

Globalizing The Curriculum Through Faculty Travel-Study Seminars
Our presentation focuses on concrete suggestions for planning, implementing, and assessing international faculty travel seminars. We share our experiences in achieving the greatest impact on faculty development and student learning. Since 1992, St. Lawrence University has benefited from a series of faculty and curriculum grants for expanding the international, intercultural, and global dimensions of teaching and learning. The College of Wooster has launched a similar program, as part of an initiative to globalize our curriculum.
Shila Garg, Dean of the Faculty, Henry Kreuzman, Associate Professor of Philosophy, and Shirley Huston-Findley, Associate Professor of Theatre – all of The College of Wooster; Eve Stoddard, Professor of English & Chair of the Global Studies, and Erin McCarthy, Associate Professor of Philosophy – both of St. Lawrence University
Faculty Development (PDF of PowerPoint)

From the Ground Up: General Education Reform in Hong Kong
In 2004-2005, the government of  SAR of Hong Kong authorized a major reform of its universities – transitioning from a three-year undergraduate degree program focused exclusively on preparation in a focal profession or academic field to a four-year undergraduate degree program, including a substantial component of non-specialized  or general education.  These concurrent developments have created in Hong Kong a veritable laboratory for the study of  the wholesale recreation of  general education at both the secondary and postsecondary undergraduate levels. The current session provides an opportunity for four panelists to provide an overview of the challenges and responses of HK universities to four key aspects of current on-going general education developments in this Chinese-British socio-cultural mix.
Martin J. Finkelstein, Professor of Higher Education, Seton Hall University, and Fulbright Senior Specialist, University of Hong Kong;  William Lee, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Lingnan University; Ming Pang, Professor of Education, Hong Kong University; Mei Yee Leung, Associate Director of University General Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Finkelstein PowerPoint (PDF)
Mei Yee Leung PowerPoint (PDF)
Ming Fai PANG PowerPoint (PDF)
William Keng Mun Lee PowerPoint (PDF)

ACAD Session:
Reorganizing Academic Affairs
Many universities have recently found their traditional academic affairs administrative structures no longer provide effective support for their faculties and programs.  Reasons for reorganization include enrollment growth, creation of interdisciplinary programs, divisions of labor between evaluative and developmental roles, and fiscal constraints.  Through case studies, this session engages participants in the major issues involved in significant reorganization.
Janet McNew, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Steve Kucera, Interim Dean, College of Natural & Health Sciences both of The University of Tampa; Michael L. Berger, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Arcadia University; Beth Cunningham, Provost and Dean of the Faculty, and Frank Boyd, Associate Dean of the Faculty, both of Illinois Wesleyan University
Case Study Fairmont College (PDF)

FRIDAY, 11:45 am-1:30 pm

ACAD Luncheon
Civic Engagement and the Arts: Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park
Mimi Gardner Gates, Director, Seattle Art Museum

CONCURRENT SESSIONS - FRIDAY, 1:30-2:30 pm

Featured Session
Beyond General Education—Where Do We Go From Here? A Conversation with Stanley Katz
Stanley Katz, of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, is President Emeritus of the American Council of Learned Societies. A leader with deep experience and a scholar with wide-ranging interests—including the relationship of civil society and constitutionalism to democracy, the relationship of the United States to the international human rights regime, and the fate of philanthropy and non-profit institutions—Katz provides a unique perspective on college learning, America’s Promise, and the future of liberal education.
Stanley N. Katz, Faculty Chair of the Undergraduate Program and Director, Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, Princeton University

20/20 Session: The Co-Curriculum and Global Studies

Interdisciplinary Studies at NSU: Our Guiding Vision in Teaching and Presenting Interdisciplinary Studies at an Historically Black College & University (HBCU)
Faculty from the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Norfolk State University share their aims and outcomes of liberal education by allowing students to integrate multiple disciplinary knowledge acquisition in an effort to develop and meet the practical demands of this consumer-driven higher educational system. How do we do this? This is done by offering our courses in various modes, by employing a diverse faculty population, by teaching online, by offering accelerated courses, and by developing our own textbooks. This presentation also addresses the diverse and sometimes conflicting demands of Higher Education and students through a discussion on the feasibility and necessity of interdisciplinary dialogue and work among faculty. Attendees will learn how to apply their own curricular needs and challenges to our model, adapting when and where appropriate and receive data on ways to address changing and multiple student needs and abilities.
Dennis Montgomery, JD, Acting Director of the Virginia Beach Higher Education Center, Norfolk State University
Interdisciplinary Studies at Norfolk State Univ (PDF)

Co-curricular Engagement in a Global Understanding Course Sequence
Description and discussion of how a co-curricular engagement program in Global Understanding (GU) was created and implemented, with particular emphasis on Student Learning Outcomes; creation and identification of actual experiential activities; their integration inside and outside of the university; their marketing at multiple levels; and their assessment in terms of individual courses, the program, general education, and accreditation. A range of resources will be provided to attendees along with ample opportunities for questions/answers and discussion.
Robert W. Strong, Assistant Professor & Global Understanding Course Coordinator, and Marianne Hopper, Dean of University Programs & Director of Global Understanding Program – both of St. Edward's University

Studying Authentic Community/Higher Education Partnerships: Curricular and Pedagogical Implications for Student Learning
This participatory research session will introduce the findings of a Partnership Forum sponsored by Portland State University and attended by national and local representatives of 12 institutions of higher education and 8 community agencies and organizations.  The findings represent diverse perspectives and include both understandings and practices of partnerships.  Session attendees will join the presenters in an analysis of the findings for curricular implications and related pedagogical approaches for student learning outcomes related to partnerships.
Amy Driscoll, Scholar, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; Maria Avila, Director, Center for Community-Based Learning, Occidental College; Eric Mankowski, Associate Professor of Psychology, Portland State University; Josh Todd, Youth Development Coordinator, Multnomah County Commission on Children, Families, and Community

20/20 Session:  Global Outreach and The Middle East

The Branding of American Higher Education in the Persian Gulf
Many American Universities are looking for a foothold in the Persian Gulf.  What are the attractions of the region?  Is it possible to transplant American liberal education?  What exactly do the kingdoms of the Persian Gulf expect of higher education? Can an American style education usher in ideals of critical thinking, transparency and accountability in monarchical societies?  Can the proverbial "clash of civilizations" be diffused through setting up educational shop in the Gulf?
Poonam Arora, Professor and Associate Dean, Zayed University

There and Back Again
What if your president gave you six grand and said, go to the Middle East? That's what happened at Champlain College this year, as the Faculty Internationalization Initiative got underway. Designed to produce globalized faculty energized to design third-year general education classes, the Initiative has implications far beyond its intended goal. This presentation examines how such a program can work, and the challenges in making it successful.
Robert R Mayer, Assistant Professor and Core Development Team, Core Division, Champlain College

20/20 Session: Faculty-Driven and University-Wide:  Change across the Curriculum

Improving Critical Thinking Skills:  A University-Wide Initiative
The Minnesota State University, Mankato “Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum” Project was an institutional initiative designed to improve student critical thinking through the creation and implementation of new instructional and curriculum materials, assessments, and support mechanisms. Thirty-nine faculty (out of over 100 applications) from a variety of disciplines across the university were selected through a competitive proposal process, which allowed them to participate in workshops and learning-community activities geared toward developing student knowledge and skills in critical thinking. This project created and fostered a core of faculty from across the university who shared information, ideas and experience.
Stewart Ross, Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Minnesota State University, Mankato; Tracy Pellett, Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Studies, Central Washington University
PowerPoint Improving Critical Thinking Skills

Notes from Midstream:  Toward a Sustainable Model of Integrated and Intentional Student Learning
This session will present some of the surprises of one recent campus-wide effort in the core curriculum to integrate multiple sites and sources of student learning with traditional liberal arts goals and perspectives to prepare students for pre-professional and traditional arts and sciences majors.  We will focus particularly on some secondary developments during implementation of this curricular design that hold the most promise for creating a sustainable model of integrated, intentional student-centered learning.
Alan W. Grose, Administrative Coordinator for the Core Seminar Program, and Bernice Braid, Director of the Core Seminar Program – both of Long Island University Brooklyn Campus
HANDOUT: Notes from Midstream (PDF)

This session is moderated by Ronald W. Daniel, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education, Virginia Tech

Reaching Back and Pulling Forward:
Two Integrated Programs for College Readiness and Retention
Presenters will describe two programs proven to increase college readiness.  "Jump Start to College: A College Readiness Reach-Back Model" is an innovative partnership with the Minneapolis Public Schools that increases college readiness through expanded outreach to K-12, early assessment testing of students, faculty to faculty exchanges, and completion of developmental curriculum during the junior and senior year of high school. "The Power of YOU” also works with the public schools, requiring students to participate in service learning/civic engagement opportunities.  Presenters will present data on this program and share its successes and challenges.
Linnea A. Stenson, Dean of Liberal Arts and Associate Vice President, Academic Affairs, and Karen Hynick, Dean, Office of Academic Affairs – both of Minneapolis Community and Technical College

Integrative Learning through Interdisciplinary Teaching
This session will outline and characterize the successful attributes and challenges of integrative and interdisciplinary teaching with a focus on integrating multiple and conflicting perspectives, team-teaching and assessment. Our panel will address the following questions.  What is the contribution and role of interdisciplinary team teaching to student learning? How does one structure experiences so that conflicting disciplinary perspectives can be explored and stimulate greater learning?
Matthew Baasten, Chair and Associate Professor of Theology, Robert Duff, Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Steven Kolmes, Rev. John Molter Chair in Science, Director of the Environmental Studies Program, Professor of Biology, and Russell Butkus, Associate Professor of Theology and Associate Director of the Environmental Studies Program, and Marlene Moore, Powers Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence – all of the University of Portland
Univ of Portland (PDF)

Supporting First-Generation Students: The Role of Learning Communities to Promote Deep Learning
It is well known that first-generation students enter college less advantaged in many ways compared to their non-first-generation peers. First-generation students are more likely to come from lower-income families, be a member of a minority group, have weaker academic preparation for college, more likely to choose a technical degree program, have lower degree aspirations, and generally lower academic engagement in high school.  Many programs and initiatives, such as learning communities, have targeted these students in an effort to improve their collegiate academic success.  This research session will highlight findings from a study of the impact of learning communities on first-generation, first-year students involvement with “deep learning” activities and self-reported gains.
James S Cole, Assistant Research Scientist, Indiana University Bloomington; Alexander McCormick, Director, and Jillian Kinzie, Associate Director – both of the National Survey of Student Engagement, Indiana University-Bloomington

A Mixed Methods Approach to Assessing Student Engagement
College students participating in a panel study completed an online survey on several aspects of their college experience. Based on their survey responses, we developed a typology of student engagement and then analyzed this typology in relation to interviews conducted with the same students. We found greater consistency between survey and interview data for some types of student engagement and differences among racial groups in types of engagement.  We conclude by suggesting how qualitative and quantitative methods can be used to inform one another and, when combined, can produce a more nuanced and insightful understanding of student engagement.
Lee Cuba, Professor of Sociology, Wellesley College; Heather Lindkvist, Lecturer in Anthropology, Bates College; Nancy Jennings, Associate Professor of Education, and Suzanne Lovett, Associate Professor of Psychology – both of  Bowdoin College
Mixed Methods Approach PDF (PowerPoint - PDF)

Interdisciplinary Teaching and Object-Based Learning in Campus Museums
Opened in 2000, Skidmore’s Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery was founded with strong administration and faculty support as an interdisciplinary institution drawing  on the College’s long tradition of interdisciplinary teaching. The Tang’s unusual record of faculty involvement has produced a unique stream of faculty-originated exhibitions reaching beyond art and into astronomy, chemistry, history, archeology, literature, sociology, and more, resulting in a cutting edge laboratory for the investigation of provocative ideas with unprecedented levels of use by faculty and students.  Presenters will show how higher education can more creatively make use of campus museums in teaching, both to reflect and foster a culture of interdisciplinarity and develop a deeper appreciation for the increasing role of the visual in learning, work, and life.
John Weber, Director of the Tang Museum, Philip Glotzbach, President, Susan Kress, Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Ian Berry, Associate Director and Chief Curator – all of Skidmore College

From City Hall to Campus to Workforce: Building Academic Programs that Serve the Community
To address pressing needs of their communities, government and non-profit agencies are requesting higher education to provide education in an array of human and social services. To serve these needs effectively, higher educationneeds to broaden and deepen its consultation with practitioners in designing new curricula. Colleges and universities would do well to consider a curriculum development model that requires consultation not only with potential employers, but also with practitioners and supervisors of practitioners. In this way, colleges and universities willunderstand community needs not only in terms of knowledge and skills but also in the ways in which work is organized in the government and non-profit settings. This panel will offer a new model for curricular development – a model that is both cross-disciplinary as well as cross-cultural.
Joseph Subbiondo, President, Judie Wexler, Academic Vice President and Dean of Faculty, and Steven Tierney, Member of the San Francisco Health Commission, and Program Director of Community Mental Health – all of the California Institute of Integral Studies; Barbara Garcia, Deputy Director of Health, San Francisco City and County

ACAD Session:
Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creativity in the Arts and Humanities: Institutional Structures, Cultures, and Funding
As undergraduate research becomes a mainstream pedagogy of intentional, interactive learning, deans are faced with structural and leadership challenges.  This session will outline some successful organizational models and some of the ways deans have effectively facilitated the teacher-scholar model across all disciplines. Come prepared to share ideas and strategies.
Greg Young, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Montana State University, and Nancy Hensel, Executive Officer, Council on Undergraduate Research
PowerPoint 1
PowerPoint 2

CONCURRENT SESSIONS - FRIDAY, 2:45-4:00 pm

Featured Session
Getting High School Students Ready: Implications of New Directions in College Learning
AAC&U's Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative identifies the need to provide all students with more opportunities for engaged, hands-on, and integrative learning.  The LEAP initiative  also argues that we must provide a “compass” to help students more effectively chart their way through both high school and college and ensure that they are focused on achieving essential learning outcomes. How should high schools prepare students to be truly ready for this kind of learning? This session will ask teachers and educational leaders who are deeply involved in envisioning and implementing global education to describe new directions in independent high schools, as well as the obstacles that still stand in the way of enacting the LEAP vision for all students.
Peter Merrill, Head, Division of World Languages, Phillips Academy; Paul Miller, Director of Global Initiatives at National Association of Independent Schools; Clayton W. Lewis, Head of School,  Washington International School; Bernie Noe, Head of School, and Anne Stavney, Assistant Head of School – both of Lakeside School; Debra Humphreys, Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs, AAC&U

Featured Session
Give Students a Compass: States, Systems, and New Strategies for General Education in Public Institutions
In its new project, “Give Students a Compass,” AAC&U is working with three state systems to re-map educational aims, educational practices, and assessment strategies for general education in public higher education.  Participating systems will infuse general education with practices that raise the levels of performance and success of all students, especially those who remain underserved.  Compass faculty and staff leaders will describe the project and consider its potential to act as a catalyst to generate change that will influence all of higher education.
Susan Albertine, Senior Director, LEAP States Initiative, AAC&U; Elisabeth Zinser, Special Assistant to the Chancellor, Oregon University System; Ken O'Donnell, Associate Dean, Academic Program Planning, California State University Office of the Chancellor; Rebecca Karoff, Senior Academic Planner, Office of Academic Affairs, University of Wisconsin System

“Give Students a Compass” is part of AAC&U’s Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) Campaign

Service Learning & Political Engagement:  Faculty Development & Student Learning
Civic engagement can lead to political engagement, but not always.  As educators, we must pay attention to the knowledge, skills, and motivation needed for political engagement.  Drawing on California Campus Compact and the Carnegie Foundation’s Faculty Fellows Program for Service Learning for Political Engagement, we address these questions:  What is political engagement?  Why is it important?  What does it look like?  What are the dilemmas associated with political engagement in the classroom? How can faculty respond?
David Donahue, Associate Professor, Mills College; S. Patrick Doyle, Assistant Professor, CSU Chico; Marcia Hernandez, Assistant Professor, University of the Pacific; Elaine Ikeda, Executive Director, California Campus Compact; Kathleen Yep, Assistant Professor of Sociology/Asian American Studies, Pitzer College

Civic Engagement and the Liberal Arts: Democratic Practices, Ethical Demands
This presentation will examine the assumption that an ethical and political approach to democratic practices and civic engagement is intrinsic to all aspects of a strong liberal arts education. In addition to discussing forms of resistance to this kind of learning, presenters will address the required components of an educational environment that can support democratic-related learning outcomes. There will be a focus on pedagogical, institutional, programmatic, and curricular issues, as well as time for discussion.
Jennifer S. Simpson, Associate Professor, University of Waterloo; Joseph Jordan, Director, Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; Elizabeth Minnich, Senior Fellow, AAC&U

Do the Parts Add Up to the Whole?  Lessons from the Mission and Majors Assessment Project
What happens faculty "deconstruct" institutional learning goals at the departmental level?  Faculty from four liberal arts colleges examined the relationship between all-college goals and learning in the major in three areas—critical thinking, quantitative literacy, and civic engagement—and found that grassroots, departmental assessment catalyzed important discussions and led to new approaches to learning. We discovered, however, a lack of consensus about definitions, and the role the disciplines play in "delivering the product" of a liberal education.
Marion Field Fass, Professor of Biology, Beloit College; Robin Woods, Professor of English, Ripon College; Kevin Hastings, Professor of Mathematics, Knox College; Frank Gersich, Professor of Accounting, Monmouth College
Additional Information Available
Project Documents Available

How Do You Get There from Here?  Models for Implementing Integrative Learning and Collaborative Teaching
At Grinnell and Oberlin Colleges, two selective liberal arts colleges, the growing emphasis on next generation integrative learning has led to a renewed interest in collaborative teaching as a way to help ensure that we continue to provide the kind of rigorous inquiry that is at the heart of the best educational experiences.  Faculty members and associate deans involved in developing integrative courses will discuss strategies to address pedagogical, philosophical, and staffing issues arising from integrative teaching, and share some lessons learned in the classroom.
Marci Sortor, Associate Dean of the College, Director of Interdisciplinary Studies, Professor of History, Grinnell College; Nick Jones, Associate Dean for Curricular Development, Professor of English, Oberlin College; Clark Lindgren, Professor of Chemistry, Grinnell College; Steven Volk, Professor of History and Director of the Center for Teaching Innovation and Excellence, Oberlin College; Dan Reynolds, Professor of German and Director, Center for the Study of Humanities, Grinnell College

America’s Promise and the Globalization of Liberal Learning
This panel will examine the impact of innovative models U.S.-inflected  liberal learning outside of the United States.  Although notions like “America’s promise” may evoke skepticism in some cultural and political contexts, panel members will discuss the positive impact of U.S.-based approaches to liberal learning on students in several institutions around the world.  The panel will collectively ask:  How can educators committed to U.S.-style liberal education grow the global dialogue about learning in the 21st Century?
Scott Evenbeck, Professor of Psychology and Dean of University College [Panel Chair], Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis; Patricia Burlaud, Dean of Operations, Assessments & Accreditation, Global Programs, New York Institute of Technology; Jeffrey Belnap, Associate Provost and Director, Abu Dhabi Campus, Zayed University; Deborah Hughes-Hallett, Professor, Harvard School of Government

Should Academics be Active? Campuses and Cutting Edge Civic Engagement
Two activist authors and popular campus lecturers, Robert Musil and Paul Loeb, discuss the latest developments in renewed campus engagement and activism, including significant efforts in the historic 2008 election.  Musil describes campus sustainability trends, environmental and public health remediation projects, and a growing network of organizations, coalitions, and actions that cross traditional boundaries between colleges, communities and civic action. Loeb describes the engagement of students, campuses and higher education associations in electoral participation and turn out as well as traditional campus activism.  Participants will join in a discussion of the promise and limits of campus activism.
Robert Musil, Scholar in Residence, American University; and Paul Loeb, author of Soul of a Citizen and The Impossible Will Take a Little While. Loeb ran Campus Compact’s 15-state 2008 election engagement project, and his 2002 talk to the Chief Academic Officer’s conference of the American Association of State Colleges & Universities inspired their American Democracy Project. See www.paulloeb.org.

 Strategies for Establishing Study Abroad Programs

Expanding Internationalization Efforts: How to Get Proposals Through (or not) Your Curriculum Committee
This session focuses on what makes successful internationalization proposals when submitted to a curriculum committee.  The presenters, both former Curriculum Committee Chairs, address why some proposals are accepted and others are rejected. Topics include: developing application forms, assessing proposals, developing a review process, creating standards, and collaborating with administrators. Curriculum Committees can work with other campus committees to promote internationalization and to oversee abroad programs as well as with departments with travel abroad requirements.
Laurence Nolan, Associate Professor of Psychology, and Patricia Tooker, Assistant Professor of Nursing – both of Wagner College      

Starting from Scratch: The Challenges of Developing and Funding a Study Abroad Program
If your institution is beginning to formalize study abroad opportunities, this session is for you. It will address the big picture as well as the nuts and bolts of establishing a study abroad program and one person study abroad office. Learn 12 key challenges Shepherd University encountered setting up its study abroad program, the lessons learned along the way, and future challenges.
Ann W. Henriksson, Study Abroad Director and Coordinator of Reference and Government Documents, and Mark Stern, Vice President for Academic Affairs – both of Shepherd University
Henriksson AACU conference presentation
Henriksson AACU handout

ACAD Session:
Caution! Professors at Work: When the Institutional Bus Named “Prestige” Drives into Faculty Expectations
A number of smaller state campuses have found a sustainable higher education home in the sector of public liberal arts, a position that in turn raises expectations for higher quality educational programs and campus services. Three members of the academic administration of one such university discuss how they seek to create a climate of trust and open communication as the workplace changes to adopt a more ambitious mission.
Mark Padilla, Provost, Tracey Schwarz, Vice Provost, and David Cleeton, Dean of the Luter College of Business and Leadership all of Christopher Newport University

CONCURRENT SESSIONS - FRIDAY, 4:15-5:30 pm

Looking for Visual Literacy in Liberal Education
Today, visual images have challenged the domination of texts and words in culture, but the liberal arts have been slow to recognize the importance of images across the curriculum.  We will explore how liberal education can help students make meaning of images within the contexts in which they were created, viewed, or consumed.  Theory will be connected to classroom practice and end with discussion of key questions regarding visual literacy, liberal education, and student learning.
Deandra Little, Assistant Professor & Faculty Consultant, Teaching Resource Center, University of Virginia; Chad Berry, Director of Appalachian Center  and Goode Professor of Appalachian Studies, Berea College; Peter Felten, Associate Professor and Director, Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, Elon University
LookingforVisualLiteracyAACU2009 (documents on Elon website)

Linking Student Engagement and Essential Learning Outcomes: Evidence and Caveats
Drawing on the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, the Parsing the First Year of College Study, and the Assessing Deep Approaches to Learning Project, session participants will learn about the relationships between various forms of student engagement and a range of student outcomes. The session will focus on key findings and lessons learned that may re-shape how faculty members and campus leaders think about, direct, and use findings from campus assessment initiatives.
Thomas F. Nelson Laird, Assistant Professor, Indiana University Bloomington; Patrick Terenzini, Distinguished Professor of Higher Education and Senior Scientist, and Robert Reason, Associate Professor and Senior Research Associate – both of Pennsylvania State University; Pennsylvania State University; Tricia Seifert, Postdoctoral Research Scholar, University of Iowa
PowerPoint LinkingEngagementAndOutcomes (PDF)

Building the Next Generation of Women Leaders
The Baldwin Scholars – a four-year undergraduate women’s leadership program at Duke University that combines academic, residential, and co-curricular elements – recently completed a longitudinal assessment demonstrating significant gains in leadership, self-knowledge, and positive risk-taking in their students as compared to control groups.  Program directors will discuss their assessment design and outcomes and describe the program’s goals, successes and challenges.
Donna Lisker, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education, and Colleen Scott, Associate Director, Baldwin Scholars – both of Duke University
PowerPoint Next Generation of Women Leaders (PDF)

Transformational Learning through Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity: Models and Strategies to Build and Sustain an Institutional Infrastructure and Culture
This session will explore models and strategies associated with transforming institutional infrastructure and culture to effect deep learning through undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activity. A body of knowledge has amassed in recent years clearly indicating that these engaged forms of learning yield an array of greater educational outcomes.  The panel includes leaders from a range of institutions that participated in the Council on Undergraduate Research’s (CUR) workshops who have successfully institutionalized undergraduate research, scholarship and creative activity.  As case studies, panelists will discuss what has worked, what has not, ongoing implementation issues, and lessons-learned from their own experiences.
Jeffrey M. Osborn, Dean, School of Science, The College of New Jersey, and President, Council on Undergraduate Research; Nancy H. Hensel, Executive Officer, Council on Undergraduate Research; James Turner, Director of Undergraduate Research, Virginia Military Institute; Andrea Chapdelaine, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Albright College; Gerardo Gonzales, Dean of Graduate Studies and Associate Vice President for Research, California State University, San Marcos

Global Citizenship; Challenges and Opportunities for U.S. Higher Education
As higher education leaders committed to democratic principles, we are convinced that we have a role in “creating” global citizens. "Global citizenship", has significant challenges and opportunities for higher education. This session presents the perspectives of; a graduate student, a professor of international education, a representative of a European education exchange service, and a director of three intercultural/international education agencies. Each will offer insights in to how the work of creating “global citizens” can be accomplished.
Chris T. Cartwright, Dean of Academic Programs, The International Partnership for Service Learning and Leadership; Peggy Pusch, Chair of the Board, International Partnership of Service Learning & Leadership, Executive Director of the Society for Intercultural Education, Training, & Research, and Associate Director, Intercultural Communication Institute; Peter Kerrigan, Deputy Director, Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD), German Academic Exchange Service; Kimberley Brown, Associate Professor, Applied Linguistics & International Studies, and Miki Yamashita, Doctoral Candidate, Graduate School of Education -- both of Portland State University
Globalizing Citizenship PowerPoint (PDF)
Globalizing Citizenship Resources (PDF)

Making Culture a Competitive Advantage in the Faculty Labor Market
The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) has collected data on the job satisfaction of over 8,000 pre-tenure faculty members at more than 100 institutions.  COACHE staff will interpret climate findings overall and explore distinctions by gender, race/ethnicity, Carnegie Classification, and control (public v. private). Representatives from institutions with exemplary climate results on the COACHE instrument will share the policies and practices to which they attribute their success.  What explains high levels of satisfaction among their faculty? What norms or activities help ensure faculty satisfaction with collegiality, vitality, and collaboration?  How might institutions leverage their culture to attract first-choice faculty?  Participants will have an opportunity to engage in dialog with the panelists and each other in an interactive session following remarks by the speakers.
Cathy Trower, Research Director and Co-Principal Investigator, Harvard University; Ric Sheffield, Associate Provost, Kenyon College; Jennifer Jeffries, Interim Associate Vice President for Academic Resources, California State University San Marcos; Mary Lee Hummert, Vice Provost for Faculty Development, University of Kansas
Making Culture a Competitive Advantage (PDF)

The So-Called “Best Practices” for Teaching Writing in the Disciplines: Do They Make a Difference for Engagement and Learning?
We describe how a partnership between the National Survey of Student Engagement and the Council of Writing Program Administrators studied student writing experiences related to their engagement and learning. In 2008, 25 supplemental NSSE questions about writing practices were administered to 23,000 students, providing the broadest snapshot so far of undergraduate writing. This session presents findings and implications from the study that are particularly relevant to faculty, writing program administrators, and other academic leaders.
Charles H. Paine, Associate Professor of English, University of New Mexico; Robert Gonyea, Associate Director, Center for Postsecondary Research, Indiana University Bloomington; Chris Anson, University Distinguished Professor of English and Director of the Campus Writing and Speaking Program, North Carolina State University; Paul Anderson, Professor of English and Director, Roger and Joyce Howe Center for Writing Excellence, Miami University
Handout for So-Called Best Practices

ACAD Session:
ACAD Open-Mic Discussion

FRIDAY, 5:30-7:00 pm

Hosted Receptions

• Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences – CCAS
• Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC)
• American Conference of Academic Deans (ACAD) and Phi Beta Kappa (PBK)       
• Faculty and Administrators of Color (hosted by Diverse Issues in Higher Education)
• National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)
• Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR)
• Harvard Institutes for Higher Education (Alumni)
  
  
  

SATURDAY, JANUARY 24

NEW: 8:00-9:30 a.m.

Roundtable Discussions:
The Economy and Higher Education

We invite you to join your colleagues for roundtable discussions on how the current economic situation is affecting campuses today – and what we can do about it.  Peter Facione will open the discussion with brief remarks and observations, after which participants will move into informal conversations.  This opportunity for conversation was created in response to AAC&U members who are eager to learn what their peers are doing around the country in response to falling endowments, budget cuts, the “affordability challenge,” and other fast-changing financial pressures.  Participants will be grouped by size of institution and sector (research/doctoral, liberal arts, community college, and comprehensives).  Please look for this designation on the tables.

Discussion Leader: 
Peter (Pete) Facione is the founder and Principal of Measured Reasons LLC, a research and consulting firm supporting excellence in assessment and leadership development.  He formerly served as Provost of Loyola University Chicago, Dean of College Arts and Sciences of Santa Clara University, and Dean of the School of Human Development and Community Service at California State University Fullerton. 

CONCURRENT BREAKFAST SESSIONS - SATURDAY, 8:15-9:15 am

Building Bridges: Public Health, Sustainability, and Liberal Education
This brainstorming and planning session will explore ways to build upon national efforts to reframe the links between the professional schools and the arts and sciences; between STEM disciplines and the humanities, social sciences, and arts; between the academy and the community. Panelists will share examples from “Educated Citizen and Public Health” as well as “Mobilizing STEM Education for a Sustainable Future.” Initiative leaders are eager to link their projects to other higher education work that fosters interdisciplinary and interprofessional collaborations around efforts to build healthy and sustainable communities.
Susan Albertine, Senior Director, LEAP in the States Initiative, and Kevin Hovland; Director, Global Learning and Curricular Change – both of AAC&U; Jean MacGregor, Senior Scholar and Director, Curriculum for the Bioregion Initiative, Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education

20/20 Session: Adjunct Appointments

An Approach to the Prediction of Adjunct Costs:  Monte Carlo Simulation
Monte Carlo simulation can improve an institution’s understanding of how the complex, dynamic system surrounding determination of adjunct costs actually works.  Institutions can gain real advantage in their accuracy of budgetary forecasting.  At my institution, adjunct costs have been consistently underestimated for many years and this approach has helped correct that.  Accurate budgets are always better than inaccurate ones, even if the accuracy is in a direction that increases the level of institutional challenge.
Donald A McCrimmon, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Cazenovia College
Stochastic Approach to the Prediction of Adjunct Costs (PDF)

Fostering Community for Tenure Track and Non-Tenure Track Faculty
As non-tenure track faculty become more visible and crucial to program success, administrators must address the concerns of both non-tenure track faculty development and working conditions and the fears of tenure track faculty.  Reliance on non-tenure track faculty requires us to acknowledge their contributions to the work of the university and to plan for their full inclusion in creative ways that will allow for dialogue and a new definition of the professional community.  In this session, I hope to hear from others about non-tenure track faculty concerns at their universities and to create an opportunity to expand the discussion into a network which will provide us a forum for sharing information and suggesting solutions.
Georgia B. Rhoades, Director of Writing Across the Curriculum, Appalachian State University

Pedagogical Paralysis and Prickly Issues: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Human Rights
This panel addresses the pedagogical challenges in teaching students “Prickly Issues.”  We explore the causes of and solutions to pedagogical paralysis caused by emotional responses to personally difficult material.  Panelists will draw from our experiences teaching at both private and public colleges and universities in Sociology, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, and Women Studies as well as an undergraduate student to speak to her learning experiences
Julie D. Shayne, Lecturer of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and Center for University Studies and Programs, University of Washington, Bothell and Affiliate Assistant Professor of Women Studies, University of Washington, Seattle; Kari Lerum, Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington Bothell; Laura Toussaint, Sociology Instructor, Green River Community College; Farha Ternikar, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Le Moyne College; Patrick G Blaine, Assistant Coordinator, Spanish Language Program and Lecturer Center for University Studies and Programs, University of Washington, Seattle and Bothell; Martina Jane Kartman, Undergraduate student, Law, Societies and Justice, University of Washington
Human Rights Violations Diaspora (PDF)
Imagining the Americas Syllabus (PDF)

Building a Campus Culture to Assess 300 General Education Courses
Learn how GVSU designed and implemented a course-based assessment program for the 300 classes in our general education program.  Faculty members from across the university were trained to write outcomes for the general education goals using measures embedded in their course(s).  The assessment program has achieved wide-spread acceptance and compliance, despite the fact that the campus culture was not based on assessment.  Hear also about problems encountered, and solutions that did and did not work.
Carol Griffin, Director of General Education, and Julie Guevara, Accreditation and Assessment Officer – both of Grand Valley State University
Building a Campus Culture PowerPoint (PDF)

Engaging Science in Our Global Future: Project Pericles’ Civic Engagement Course (CEC) Grant Program
Energy shortages, the threat of pandemics, and climate change are among today’s most serious global issues.  While increasingly addressed in social science and humanities courses, it is rarer that science curricula incorporates the socio-economic, political, and scientific causes and implications of global problems.  This panel will discuss a Project Pericles program that encourages faculty to develop, teach, and evaluate science courses that incorporate civic engagement while focusing on pragmatics, challenges, and successes of curricular implementation.
Jan R. Liss, Executive Director, Project Pericles; Caryl Waggett, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science, Allegheny College; Adrian Hightower, Assistant Professor of Physics, Occidental College; Ammini Moorthy, Professor of Biology, Wagner College
Pericles Powerpoint (PDF)

This session is sponsored by Project Pericles

The University as Global Citizen: Transforming Higher Education through Practices of Responsible Global Citizenship
This session aims to share recent research and pedagogy with higher education administrators interested in promoting global civic engagement and global citizenship across the institution.  The presentations preview contributions to the forthcoming volume, The Handbook of Practice and Research in Study Abroad: Higher Education and the Quest for Global Citizenship (Routledge, 2009). The session will include audience interaction in dialogue around how civic engagement in the global community can transform university institutional culture and practices.
Rebecca Hovey, World Learning Engaged Global Scholar, School for International Training, World Learning; Hans Schattle, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Yonsei University; Ross Lewin, Director of Study Abroad, University of Connecticut; Adam Weinberg, Provost and Executive Vice-President, SIT, World Learning

From Diversity to Equity: The University of Wisconsin System’s Equity Scorecard Project
The panel will present an overview of the Equity Scorecard and its implementation at eleven University of Wisconsin institutions.  Designed by Estela Bensimon, the Scorecard fosters evidence-based inquiry to inform strategic actions for narrowing the achievement gap between students of color and their white peers.  Emphasis will be placed on the Scorecard process as an undertaking with high stakes and rewards, which is already resulting in institutional transformation and a greater willingness to take responsibility for student success.
Vicki C. Washington, J.D., Interim Assistant Vice President, Academic Diversity and Development, and Rebecca Martin, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs – both of the University of Wisconsin System; David Shih, Associate Professor of English, UW-Eau Claire

CONCURRENT SESSIONS - SATURDAY, 9:30-10:30 am

20/20 Session:  Atheism and Christian Privilege on Campus

Recognizing Christian Privilege on Campus: Suggestions for Creating an Inclusive Environment for Inner Development
Developing an understanding and respect for those who are different is at the heart of civic engagement. However, Christian privilege—the conscious and subconscious advantages afforded to Christians—forestalls students’ development of a pluralist mindset. Educating students to meet the challenges of a plural world requires recognizing Christian privilege on campus. Only after acknowledgement can campuses engage in an honest dialogue about creating campus environments supportive of all students’ inner development.
Tricia A. Seifert, Postdoctoral Research Scholar, University of Iowa     
Christian privilege  (PDF)

Civic, Diversity, and Global Education: How is Liberal Education Addressing the Needs of Atheist Students?
Atheist students, like atheists in the broader society are often stigmatized as immoral, evil, or god-hating. In order for liberal education to promote personal and social responsibility for a world lived in common, the needs of atheist students must be addressed within spiritual and religious efforts on campus. This session will provide a starting point for participants to understand atheism and provide ideas for practice to help educators reduce the invisibility, marginalization, and stigmatization of atheist students.
Kathleen M Goodman, Doctoral student and research assistant, Center for Research on Undergraduate Education, University of Iowa
Atheism PowerPoint (PDF)

20/20 Session:  International Partnerships

Global Learning and Civic Engagement:  The Sichuan Earthquake and Liberal Learning Outcomes
Widener University, a nationally recognized leader in civic engagement, uses its liberal arts foundations to promote a metropolitan mission that develops global citizens of character.  Recent collaborations with four institutions in China have dramatically changed the ways we promote our metropolitan mission, particularly in the case of the partnership between Widener and Chongqing Technology and Business University.  Our faculty and students were nearby when the Sichuan earthquake struck, giving us unparalleled opportunities to expand the collaboration and learning outcomes our students were expected to achieve.  This presentation will offer an example of shared institutional commitments (the home institution and the foreign institution) where student and faculty exchanges have enhanced our liberal learning objectives and clarified our mission.
Jo Allen, Senior Vice President and Provost and Professor of English, and Paula Silver, Associate Dean of Social Work Education – both of Widener University     

Global Engagement through Undergraduate Research
Our program partners with international universities in Chile and Singapore to focus undergraduates on both research and global responsibility. Our students work with students on two other continents on common and complex issues of global significance including urbanization with its attendant problems, global health, and global migration. While past topics such as these have focused on social science topics, the model can easily lend itself to the study in the sciences or the humanities.
Paul B. Duff, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies; Professor of Religion, and Elizabeth Chacko, Associate Professor of Geography – both of George Washington University

Plan Before you LEAP:  Linking Strategic Planning, Curricular Innovation and ePortfolio Assessment Through the LEAP Vision
This session will provide a brief multimedia case study from four diverse perspectives:  assessment, curricular innovation, academic technology, and student voices.  We will demonstrate how San Francisco State University’s strategic plan embraces the LEAP vision. Participants will have the opportunity to strategize on how they might use LEAP as a vehicle for strategic planning, accreditation, curricular innovation, and ePortfolio assessment.
Gail G. Evans, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Linda Buckley, Associate Vice President of Academic Planning & Educational Effectiveness, and Maggie Beers, Director of Academic Technology – all of San Francisco State University
Plan Before You LEAP PowerPoint (PDF)
San Francisco State ePortfolio Website

Innovative Approaches to Faculty Development:  Initiatives and Programs that Will Support Your Educators
This session explores eight ten innovative faculty development initiatives practiced at four different institutions within the University of Wisconsin-System.  Through this panel of professors, faculty developers and administrators, participants will hear multiple perspectives on developing, offering and evaluating faculty development opportunities.  Each presenter will share (1) a brief description, (2)the purpose, (3) approximate costs, (4) an outline of implementation steps and (5) a brief analysis of challenges and successes of the initiatives presented.
Maria Stalzer Wyant Cuzzo, Director of Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CELT) and Professor of Legal Studies, University of Wisconsin-Superior;
Nancy Chick, Associate Professor and Vice Chair of UW Colleges English Department and Director, Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars Program, University of Wisconsin System, Office of Professional and Instructional Development (OPID);
Jane Ewens, Director, Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars Program, UW System, Office of Professional and Instructional Development (OPID), Professor Emeritus, UW Colleges Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Waukesha;
Jeanne Rothaupt, Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Wisconsin-Stout

20/20 Session: Strategies for Success:  First Generation Students

Supporting First Generation Students:  Academic Connections, Engagement and Success
The intentional formation of supportive social and educational communities is helping Berea’s first-generation and low-income students meet the challenges of achieving success, both academically and personally.  Working with faculty, staff, and peer leaders, cohorts of first-year students in the Academic Connections, Engagement and Success program develop skills in personal responsibility, time management, goal setting, and effective study habits.  Beyond retention, students enhance their academic performance as measured by GPA and inclusion on the Dean’s List.
Carolyn R. Newton, Academic Vice President and Provost, and Christopher Lakes, Coordinator of the First Year Experience – both of Berea College
Berea PowerPoint (PDF)
Berea Handout (PDF)

The Students First Success System: promoting academic success through expertise development mentoring
University Studies, Portland State University’s general education curriculum, provides students with integrated, connected learning experiences across their undergraduate program. This presentation describes the Students First Success System (SFSS), an on-line student support system that matches multimedia resources to individual needs and specific University Studies’ learning goals. SFSS provides new students with useful information about “what it takes to succeed at college,” insights into the culture of higher education, and tips on becoming “more expert” students.
Peter J. Collier, Professor of Sociology, Shawn Smallman, Vice Provost for Instruction and Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Stephen Reder, Professor of Applied Linguistics, and Sukhwant Jhaj, Director, University Studies Program – all of Portland State University
Students First System (PDF of PowerPoint)

Inclusive Excellence: Highline Community College Honors Scholar Program 
Can "diversity" and "excellence" mix?  Absolutely!  Come see how in a presentation about the Highline Community College Honors Scholar Program.  Come experience the specifics of a program whose 70 or so graduates took with them over $1.9 million in financial aid and scholarships.  Hear from the director.  Meet some of the student success stories and witness their contributions.
Barbara L. Clinton, Director, Honors Scholar Program; Kim Trinh, Meheret Endeshaw, and Eunice Soh – all former students who now have bachelor’s degrees; Lance Frank and Bethanie Russell, current students transferring to four-year institutions – all from Highline Community College
AACUHonorsPres (PDF)

Communicating Institutional Learning: The View from 30,000 Feet
Increased communication about institutional effectiveness can be of tremendous value to an institution because it privileges institutional learning. We will work with session participants to explore the links between peer review, accountability, transparency, and communication as a proactive strategy to nurture such learning. Participants will leave with a greater appreciation for the utility of closing the loop on organizational assessment and intentionality about the purposes and benefits of shaping and sharing institutional learning.
Ingrid Walker, Assistant Director, and Michelle Behr, Assistant Director – both of Western Association of Schools and Colleges
Handout Communicating Institutional Learning (PDF)

“Parallel Play” or Intentional Integrative Learning? Results from a Two-Year Project on Assessing Learning in Learning Communities
Among educators, there is a consensus that graduates need to become integrative thinkers. In 2006, Washington Center initiated a national project to investigate integrative learning with twenty-two colleges and universities in the largest participatory research project on learning communities to date using a collaborative assessment protocol based on Veronica Boix-Mansilla’s research on the dimensions of interdisciplinarity and Washington Center’s heuristic for designing integrative assignments. In this session, we will report on findings and critical questions.
Gillies  Malnarich, C-Director, and Emily Lardner, Co-Director – both of The Washington Center for Improving Undergraduate Education, The Evergreen State College
Parallel Play PowerPoint (PDF)

ACAD Session:
Intentional Leadership for Interdisciplinary Learning: One College’s Joint Faculty Appointment Initiative
Three deans from a large public research university (RU/VH) will discuss the steps taken to foster interdisciplinary learning, research, and teaching.  Presenters will outline a dean’s office initiative to ensure the success of several interdisciplinary joint faculty searches intended to contribute to the college’s intellectual and personal diversity.
Pamela R. Matthews, Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts, Charles A. Johnson, Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Cheryl Hanks, Assistant Dean, College of Liberal Arts; all of Texas A&M University
PowerPoint Intentional Leadership for Interdisc Learning
Hypothetical Promotion and Tenure Case (PDF)

SATURDAY, 10:45-11:45 a.m.

Closing Plenary
Grass Roots and Patriotism: Re-Centering Student Civic Engagement in Higher Education
It took a long time to marginalize civic responsibility as a goal for college; and it will take a long time to re-establish it at the center of undergraduate learning. Yet the challenges to participatory democracy in the US and around the globe will not wait. What have we accomplished to date in rebuilding the civic capacity in higher education and the broader society? What can we learn from patterns of student civic engagement? Two leading public intellectuals share their views on student political thought and action during the 2008 election cycle—and the implications for higher education.
Melissa Harris-Lacewell,  Associate Professor of Politics and African American Studies, Princeton University, and author of Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought; Eric Liu, Fellow, The New America Foundation, co-author, The True Patriot , and author, The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker