ANAC Initiates ANAC 2005 Planning Process

Over the next eighteen months the Associated New American Colleges will take stock of its first five years and plot a course for the next five in an ANAC 2005 planning process. Initiated by ANAC's Executive Committee and Institutional Representatives over the summer, ANAC 2005 will engage member faculty and administrative leaders in a review of what has been accomplished since ANAC's founding in October 1995, and an analysis and planning process to set ANAC's future directions. Goals for ANAC 2005 include framing a strategy that assists members to take robust advantage of ANAC membership for institutional purposes and advances the New American college and university model of higher education nationally. (Story continued below.)

Articles In This Issue:

ANAC Front Page:

• US News and World Report Rankings Feature ANAC Members
• "Presidential Campaigns That Made the Nation" Exhibit at the University of Hartford
• What's Inside? The ANAC News Roundup

ANAC Projects and Activities:

• PR Directors to Plan ANAC Marketing Strategy in Baltimore, November 4-6
• ANACSA Announces Initial Programs with Summer 2001 Start-up
• ANAC and AACU Sponsor January 17 Conference on Liberal Arts/Professional Studies Integration to Enhance Liberal Learning
• The Pew Charitable Trusts Extend ANAC Faculty Work Project Grant
• New ANAC Data Exchange Reporting Program Readied for Early November Testing

Member Campus News:

• Mercer University Center for Community Development Attracts Grants
• University of Redlands Dedicates Science Buildings
• Susquehanna University Names New President
• Fire Damages Hamline University Library
• Rollins College Receives Awards For Capital Construction Projects
• ANAC Business Deans Hold Initial Meeting

Editorials and Commentary:

• President Anderson Letter to Chronicle Editor
• Robert B. Reich: "How Selective Colleges Heighten Inequality"
• Keith Devlin: "Finding Your Inner Mathematician"

What's Ahead—Upcoming Events:

• November 15 Deadline for Round III of Pew Grant Program in Course Redesign
• National Academy for Academic Leadership Workshop for Chief Academic and Financial Officers, November 19-22
• National School & Community Corps Invites ANAC Student Participation
• ANAC Calendar of Upcoming Events

As President Loren Anderson (Chair, ANAC Presidents Council) pointed out in a September 18 letter to the Chronicle of Higher Education (reprinted in this Bulletin), the media establishment retains its dualistic conception of a higher education composed in every important sense almost solely of research universities and liberal arts colleges. This thinking continues in spite of the fact that the new Carnegie reclassification adds 99 institutions to the Masters category (classification for all but two ANAC members). Indeed, Carnegie classifies 615 institutions as Masters I and II, significantly more than the 474 research and liberal arts institutions combined.

ANAC's national media project, in conjunction with the ANAC 2005 planning process, has set its sights on gaining media recognition of the distinctive educational role that ANAC members play and the importance of institutional pluralism in strengthening educational outcomes in a global information society. To advance the project, ANAC PR directors will hold a mini-conference and strategy meeting in Baltimore, November 4-6, just prior to the American Marketing Association annual Symposium on the Marketing of Higher Education. David L. Marcus, Pulitzer Prize winning senior writer at US News and World Report, will be a featured speaker and conduct a workshop for ANAC.

While the purpose of the media relations project is to advance ANAC and member visibility, ANAC 2005 is designed to establish a strong ANAC presence on each member campus. Over the next several months most ANAC member affinity groups will address ANAC 2005 as a key meeting agenda (e.g., PR Directors in November; Presidents Council, Institutional Representatives, and Hewlett Project in January; Faculty Work Project and CFOs in February; Chief Student Affairs Officers in March). Years II and III of the ANAC Data Exchange will provide data adding to the empirical validation of ANAC student outcomes and institutional performance trends.

During June 2001, ANAC will hold an ANAC 2005 planning conference with participation from representatives of its member affinity groups. This meeting will draft ANAC 2005 in preliminary form and initiate specific plans for a Summer 2002 ANAC Senior Leadership Conference. The Senior Leadership Conference will assemble leadership teams from member institutions to engage ANAC 2005 issues and to develop institutional strategies and plans designed to achieve optimal institutional benefit from ANAC membership.

US News and World Report Rankings Feature ANAC Members


The recent annual US News college and university ratings have once again recognized ANAC member colleges and universities as among the leading regional institutions in the nation. Among those identified in the first tier are:

• North: Ithaca College, Quinnipiac University
• South: Rollins College, Mercer University, Elon College, Belmont University, Hampton University
• Midwest: Valparaiso University, Drake University, University of Dayton, Butler University, North Central College, Drury University
• West: University of Redlands, Pacific Lutheran University, Saint Mary's College of California

In addition to these designations, Susquehanna University, ANAC's only member classified as a baccalaureate liberal arts college, was named for the seventh straight year as the outstanding regional liberal arts college in the North.

"Presidential Campaigns That Made the Nation" Exhibit at the University of Hartford


Timely with this year's presidential campaign season, the University of Hartford's Museum of American Political Life is displaying materials from its collection of 45,000 campaign items, one of the most comprehensive and distinguished holdings of its kind in the world. The exhibit, which runs through January 31, 2000, explores two centuries of ways that campaigns have sought to influence the vote, beginning with the maneuverings that helped Thomas Jefferson achieve the White House in 1800 and tracing campaigns through the ages, including Lincoln v. Douglas in 1860, McKinley v. Bryan in 1896, Roosevelt v. Hoover in 1932, and Reagan v. Carter in 1980.

What's Inside? The ANAC News Roundup


My mid-October travels took me to Mercer University and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation where I saw underscored the power of ANAC institutions to engage issues of community development in ways fully consistent with their educational mission. In the past several months, Mercer has received grants totaling millions of dollars in support of the Mercer Center for Community Development's comprehensive project to reinvigorate inner-city Macon (see Bulletin story). The National School & Community Corps at Woodrow Wilson has established a vigorous Americorps program in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Baltimore that offers invaluable paid intern positions to ANAC member students and recent graduates and has had its budget from the Corporation for National Service increased dramatically in recent years. The program's achievements were recognized by President Bill Clinton at a ceremony in Philadelphia on October 12, inaugurating the new program year.

ANAC member institutions experienced admissions growth this fall, especially among traditional age undergraduates--suggesting perhaps the strength of ANAC's pragmatic appeal for integrating liberal learning with career competencies. During this presidential campaign season, Quinnipiac University's national polling center has been highly visible. As Fortune magazine reports, the University is in a perpetual public and media relations campaign mode. Dedication of a new Science building is the latest jewel in the impressive expansion of the University of Redlands campus in recent years. Our concern goes out to Hamline University whose Bush Memorial Library suffered serious damage in a September fire, but is expected to reopen by the end of October. Congratulations to Susquehanna University which recently named a new president to succeed Joel Cunningham and to Rollins College on its reception of four architectural and construction awards for new facilities that have opened in the past year.

Elsewhere, Robert Reich raises disturbing questions about the effects of colleges' single-minded pursuit of an increasingly selective student body. In their mission to serve a diverse student body and the educational needs of their geographic regions, ANAC members fill critical education needs. Note the November 15 deadline for submitting institutional readiness statements for participation in Round III of the Pew Grant Program in Course Redesign. The ANAC Calendar contains information about the upcoming meeting and conference season that begins with the ANAC PR Directors conference, November 4-6, which will kick off the AMA Symposium on the Marketing of Higher Education in Baltimore.

President Bill Clinton salutes Americorps volunteers in Philadelphia, as Harris Wofford, Director of the Corporation for National Service, and volunteers applaud.