AAC&U in the News

• January 25, 2010 -- AAC&U’s 2010 annual meeting was covered by several media outlets. See stories on such topics as connecting liberal and professional education, new approaches to sustainability, motivating faculty to improve teaching and learning, among others in articles in Inside Higher Ed and the Chronicle of Higher Education. See: Educators Mull How to Motivate Professors to Improve Teaching; Business Curricula Need a Strong Dose of the Liberal Arts, Scholars Say; The New Sustainability U.; Students' 'Episodic' Engagement, and Assessment Disconnect.
  
  
• January 20, 2010 -- Findings from a new survey of employers (pdf) commissioned as part of AAC&U’s LEAP initiative were released on January 20th at AAC&U's 2010 annual meeting in Washington, DC.  More than 90 percent of employers are asking employees to use a broader set of skills and have higher levels of learning than in the past.  Only one in four believe that colleges and universities are doing a good job of preparing graduates for the demands of the global economy.  See the news release and full results of this and other LEAP-sponsored surveys. See news stories in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Community College Times, USA Today, and Inside Higher Ed.

• January 3, 2010 -- A story in the January 3 New York Times by Kate Zernike, “Career U: Making College ‘Relevant’,” featured public opinion research from AAC&U’s LEAP initiative, noting that employers “don’t want students specializing too soon.” The article quotes AAC&U VP Debra Humphreys noting that, “no matter what you major in, you need good writing skills and good speaking skills.” The findings cited are from a new survey conducted in fall 2009. Watch for the full report on findings from this study scheduled for release on January 20. See selected findings from the forthcoming study and earlier public opinion research sponsored by LEAP.
  
  
• December, 2009 -- In November, 2009, AAC&U announced the formation of the new LEAP Presidents’ Trust. Many of the 82 founding members were featured in news stories in their local media markets. In addition, Trust member, Mildred Garcia, president of California State University, Dominguez Hills, published a compelling op-ed about “A New Model of Liberal Education for the 21st Century,” in the Daily Breeze. See other coverage in the Deseret News, the Rockbridge Weekly, and the The Missoulian.
  
  
• September 30, 2009 -- AAC&U released a new report, Civic Responsibility: What Is the Campus Climate for Learning? highlighting data gathered as part of its signature initiative, Core Commitments: Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility. See the press release to learn more. Inside Higher Ed editor Scott Jaschik wrote an article about the report. Jaschik spoke with AAC&U Senior Vice President Caryn McTighe Musil. Musil said that she was, "alarmed by the idea that only minorities of students see their campuses as engaged on civic engagement issues." Chronicle of Higher Education reporter Peter Schmidt also wrote an article about the report. Schmidt states, "Colleges are not promoting civic engagement nearly as strongly as their students, faculty members, and administrators believe they should be, according to the authors of a new report release by AAC&U."
  
  
• September 16, 2009 -- In a feature story, "Standing Room Only at Community Colleges," airing on the September 16th broadcast of NBC Nightly News, Eduardo Padrón, president of Miami-Dade College and chair of AAC&U's board of directors emphasizes the importance of community colleges in providing opportunity to American students from all walks of life. The story highlights the reduction in funding at the same time as community colleges face unprecedented enrollment. See the clip online here.
  
  
• August 10, 2009 -- An op-ed in Forbes magazine written by AAC&U president Carol Geary Schneider includes research and opinions about the importance of a liberal education. The author states, "As focus groups and national surveys commissioned by AAC&U make plain, employers overwhelmingly want colleges to spend more time teaching students to analyze, how to integrate and how to apply their learning to new challenges and new settings. The 21st-century approach to liberal education–endorsed by hundreds of institutions through AAC&U’s LEAP initiative—prepares students to take advantage of economic opportunities and contribute successfully to a fast-changing workforce.”
  
  
• May 22, 2009 -- An article in The Miami Herald recounts the speakers' remarks at the Miami LEAP Forum. The author states, “Miami Dade College President Eduardo J. Padrón, chair of the board of AAC&U, said the LEAP forum’s goal was to: Spark debate about the essential learning outcomes all students need; Challenge the belief that students must either have a liberal education or a practical one by blending both; and Help college and college-bound students achieve essential learning goals.”
  
  
• May 18, 2009 -- An article in The Daily Darmouth announces the release of part two of AAC&U's 2009 national member survey. The author states, "Only 15 percent of colleges and universities rely solely on course requirements to establish a set of educational standards for all students, according to a study released by AAC&U.”
  
  
• May 15, 2009 -- An article in Inside Higher Ed announces the release of part two of AAC&U's 2009 national member survey. The author Scott Jaschik states, "A survey is being released today by AAC&U, an organization that has championed the idea that general education for undergraduates needs to include much more than distribution requirements. The survey found that the majority of colleges now add ‘integrative’ features to traditional breadth requirements.” Carol Geary Schneider, president of AAC&U, said that it was “significant and heartening to see colleges and universities moving away en masse from general education focused on distribution requirements.” She said distribution requirements at many colleges are seen as something to get through, not as significant intellectual experiences. “It’s as though the front door for general education is blocked by a confusing passageway,” she said.
  
  
• May 15, 2009 -- An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education announces the release of part two of AAC&U's 2009 national member survey. The author David Glenn states, "Course-distribution requirements are not enough to guarantee that undergraduates acquire a broad range of knowledge and skills. At least that is what many American colleges seem to have decided, according to a report released today by AAC&U. AAC&U president Carol Geary Schneider has argued that the enduring value of general education was that it produces graduates with a deep and flexible set of skills. It would be a serious mistake, she said, for colleges to turn too heavily toward a narrow, technical, preprofessional model of education.”
  
  
• May 2, 2009 -- An article in The New York Times describes the evoluation of the curriculum at community colleges. The author Tamar Levin states, “Community-college baccalaureates challenge the educational hierarchy’s boundaries between the research mission of universities, the teaching mission of colleges and open admissions for community colleges. ‘Many people in leadership believe that’s the right division of labor,’ said Carol Geary Schneider, president of AAC&U. ‘So like any fundamental change, the blurring of the lines is uncomfortable.’ Further complicating matters, some four-year universities offer only nursing and teaching degrees but also applied baccalaureates – Bachelor of Applied Science or Bachelor of Applied Technology – in the fields into which community colleges are expanding. ‘The old categories that divided up the world between big-picture and applied-skills are out of date and dysfunctional,’ Dr. Schneider said. ‘So colleges and universities of all kinds – two-year, four-year, public and private – are feeling their way toward a synthesis.’”
  
  
• April 28, 2009 -- An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education announces the release of part one of AAC&U's 2009 national member survey. The author David Glenn states, "Colleges appear to be doing more to assess student learning, according to a survey released today from AAC&U. The survey was developed in parallel with AAC&U's LEAP Project. 'Overwhelmingly our institutions are going in a direction that allows them to assess the quality of their students' performance against the expectations of their own curriculum,' said AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider. She cited especially the growing number of institutions using electronic portfolios, which allow students to demonstrate mastery of particular skills."
  
  
• April 28, 2009 -- An article in Inside Higher Ed announces the release of part one of the AAC&U's 2009 national member survey. The author Scott Jaschik states, "A study being released today by AAC&U finds that in fact assessment has been well accepted for years at most colleges, and is widespread, complete with learning outcomes. Carol Geary Schneider, president of AAC&U, said that the data show an 'emerging consensus' in higher education that learning outcomes matter, that assessment matters, and that national comparisons are not quite as important."
  
  
• April 14, 2009 -- AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider and AAC&U Vice President Terry Rhodes attended a meeting sponsored by the Lumina Foundation about a new project they are sponsoring in Utah, Minnesota, and Indiana called the Tuning project. The project was featured on the National Public Radio program Talk of the Nation. Gary Rhoades, AAUP General Secretary was against the issue and Teddi Saufman, a Commissioner in the Utah System of Higher Education was for the issue. AAC&U is mentioned positively by both sides - first with regard to our electronic portfolios efforts in VALUE and second in reference to our LEAP "essential learning outcomes" as guideposts and common outcomes, but not "standardized" for all schools in the same way.
  
  
• March 19, 2009 -- David Scobey, cultural historian and the Donald W. and Ann M. Harward Professor of Community Partnerships at Bates College, wrote an article for Inside Higher Education describing the reasons why we quantify and rank assessment. Scobey states, "Fortunately, we have good models for the kind of assessment system I am advocating. AAC&U is working with faculty across the United States to develop frameworks for the systematic use of portfolios in both 'milestone' and 'culminating' assessments."
  
  
• March 15, 2009 -- Randy Bass, assistant provost for teaching and learning initiatives at Georgetown University, conducted an interview with AAC&U vice president Terrel Rhodes in the online web resource, Academic Commons . In this interview, Terry describes the assumptions and goals behind the VALUE project. He especially addresses how electronic portfolios serve the VALUE project goals as the locus of evaluation by educators, providing frameworks for judgments tailored to local contexts but calibrated to "Essential Learning Outcomes," with broad significance for student achievement. Terry Rhodes states, "The evidence of learning collected in an e-portfolio creates a rich portrait of achievement for an individual and, with sampling and analysis from a collection of portfolios, can create a similar portrait of a program or an entire institution. Drawing directly from curriculum-embedded and co-curricular work, e-portfolios can represent multiple learning styles, modes of accomplishment, and the quality of work achieved by students."
  
  
• February 13, 2009 -- Sandy Smith, campus dean at the University of Wisconsin Marathon County in Wausau, wrote a guest column in the Wisconsin paper, The Wausau Daily Herald. In it, she discusses the benefits of higher education beyond job acquisition, and the role of the University of Wisconsin Marathon County plays in the region to provide a quality liberal education for all students. Smith cites an AAC&U study examining how liberal education learning goals met the needs of employers, pointing out, "For every essential learning outcome, the majority of employers wanted colleges to place more emphasis on them. In fact, 63 percent believe that too many recent college graduates do not have the skills they need to succeed in the global economy, skills that liberal education provides."
  
  
• February 2009 -- Tim Goral wrote an article in University Business magazine. The article outlines the findings of the AAC&U report, Our Students' Best Work: A Framework for Accountability Worthy of Our Mission. Within this report, AAC&U lays the groundwork for how to design an assessment and accountability framework. Goral quotes AAC&U President Caroll Geary Schneider. Schneider says, "We know that many campuses are still in the early stages of their work on assessment and accountability. Campuses are actively looking for a framework that will be educationally meaningful to faculty, useful to students, and closely tied to the goals of the institution."
  
  
• January 22, 2009 -- An article in Inside Higher Ed announces the release of AAC&U's new study, A Measure of Equity: Women's Progress in Higher Education, that brings together both the latest data on the status of women in various parts of higher education and short essays pointing to key issues.
  
  
• January 8, 2009 -- An article in Inside Higher Ed announces the release of AAC&U's new statement, Our Students' Best Work: A Framework for Accountability Worthy of Our Mission. The author writes, "AAC&U argues both for the idea that colleges must measure student learning and strongly against the idea of “mass testing,” which it argues would be an “enormous misuse of time and scarce resources.”
  
  
• Selected Media Clips: 2006-2008