The Institute on General Education and Assessment will take place June 4–8, 2016, in Boston, MA, and provides campus teams with opportunities to refine and advance general education programs and their assessment. The Institute on High-Impact Practices and Student Success will take place June 21–25, 2016, in Los Angeles, CA, and helps campuses, higher education systems, and consortia identify the assets students bring to college, make intentional and evidence-based use of Essential Learning Outcomes and high-impact educational practices, close achievement gaps, and devise integrative plans to advance inclusion and high levels of learning for all students. The Institute on Integrative Learning and the Departments will take place July 12–15, 2016, in Chicago, IL, and is intended for faculty and administrative teams leading change to deepen students’ integrative learning over time—connecting general education with learning in the major, and curricular with cocurricular learning. Complete information about these three institutes, including application materials, is now online.

Despite the challenges of weather and travel, the AAC&U community came together last week to probe the most important issues of our time—overcoming inequities and linking college learning to the future of democracy, social justice, and the planet.  We thank all those who not only stayed through to Saturday but took part in wonderful sessions on e-portfolio and digital learning that day and even planned further discussions for Sunday.  As one participant wrote, the snow-bound Grand Hyatt became a site of “emergent happenings.”  We extend our deep gratitude to the many talented participants who pitched in to make the meeting a remarkable probing of the needed connections between equity and quality.  We also express our profound regret to all our colleagues, near and far, who were caught in the transportation crises and the myriad personal crises resulting from the blizzard.   Follow on Twitter with #aacu16 and watch for additional resources from the meeting to be posted soon. Staff will return to the office and will be available to assist with any questions when the federal government reopens on Wednesday, January 27.

Ten graduate students will be honored as 2016 recipients of the annual K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award, a distinction given to graduate students who show exemplary promise as future leaders of higher education, who demonstrate a commitment to developing academic and civic responsibility in themselves and in others, and whose work reflects a strong emphasis on teaching and learning. Award recipients include: Claire Berezowitz, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Nusta Carranza Ko, Purdue University; Annemarie Galeucia, Louisiana State University; Uttam Gaulee, University of Florida; Brad Jacobson, University of Arizona; Jasmine Linabary, Purdue University; Breanne Przestrzelski, Clemson University; Roman Ruiz, University of Pennsylvania; Daniel Siakel, University of California, Irvine; and Desiree Weber, Northwestern University. For more details about the 2016 recipients, see the list of Cross Award winners online. The 2016 Cross Scholars will be introduced at AAC&U’s 2016 Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.

In a recent message to the accrediting community and in a keynote presentation to a National Academy of Sciences convening on college quality, AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider urged more forceful and concerted action to “make visible the kind of learning students need for twenty-first-century challenges” and to position students’ demonstrated achievement of these essential learning outcomes at the center of educational policy and practice. Schneider noted that educators and employers alike have reached a clear consensus on the key components of quality college learning, but warns that educators’ and accreditors’ silence on the specific learning outcomes that are essential in the midst of shifting policy priorities could result in perverse incentives and the prioritizing of simplistic persistence and pocketbook data as the only outcome metrics that matter. Without strong leadership, Schneider says in releasing her message on accreditation, “the things that matter most in high-quality college learning—broad learning across multiple disciplines, cross-cutting capacities such as analytic inquiry or ethical reasoning, and students’ demonstrated ability to apply knowledge to complex questions—could disappear entirely…. We must not let that happen.” See the handouts from Schneider’s NAS keynote and read the full statement on accreditation from President Schneider, as well as her earlier comments to the US Senate HELP Committee in response to Senator Lamar Alexander’s call for feedback. For additional commentary, see Inside Higher Ed.

AAC&U announces the release of the first of three planned reports highlighting findings from a national survey of AAC&U member chief academic officers (CAOs) conducted by Hart Research Associates. The initial report, “Bringing Equity and Quality Learning Together: Institutional Priorities for Tracking and Advancing Underserved Students’ Success,” highlights findings from both the national survey and from structured interviews related to goal-setting and priorities for diversity, equity, and student success in both completing degrees and achieving key learning outcomes. See select findings in the press release and the full report here: http://www.aacu.org/about/2015-membersurvey.

The newest LEAP Challenge blog post refutes the myth of the unemployed humanities major. LEAP Challenge Blog Editor Wilson Peden notes that, “We need people studying the humanities, just like we need people studying every other discipline. It’s up to individual students to choose their own educational pathways and majors according to their interests, abilities, and yes, their employment prospects. But they should do so based on accurate information, not myths….We need more and better-educated college graduates in every discipline, and we need all those graduates to be equipped with a broad base of knowledge and intellectual skills that cut across disciplines.”  Follow The LEAP Challenge blog at http://www.aacu.org/blog.