Ed Biglin, Saint Mary's College of California, describes faculty work as a professional calling in his remarks at the ANAC Woodrow Wilson Summer Institute at Ithaca College.

ANAC Projects & 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

ANACSA Announces Initial Programs for Summer 2001 Start-up


A dream of nearly two years, the Associated New American College Study Abroad Program (ANACSA) is now a reality. During October, Donna Cheshire, Director of International Programs at the University of the Pacific and ANACSA Coordinator, is mailing ANACSA brochures to the international education director and study abroad advisor at each member institution. Nine ANAC members have listed eighteen programs, beginning in Summer 2001, in ANACSA's initial set of offerings to sites in Asia, Latin America, and Europe. Students are encouraged to apply early and must submit a letter of reference from their home campus study abroad advisor as part of the application process.

ANACSA's administrative guidelines are simple and designed to facilitate student participation with the least possible burden to home or host institution:

• Participating students will pay tuition and fees at their home institution during their semester or term away, as if they were in residence on the home campus.
• The host institution offering the program will accept students for participation and administer its programs according to its established criteria and procedures. It will provide a transcript following a program to the home institution of any ANACSA participant.
• The host institution will invoice the home institution of each ANACSA participant for the direct cost of the student's participation.

Students contemplating ANACSA participation are encouraged to start the process early by contacting their respective study abroad advisor who will assist with host institution arrangements. Donna Cheshire may be contacted, as well, if difficult or unanticipated questions arise during ANACSA's early implementation (email: dcheshire@uop.edu, phone: 209-946-2246).

ANAC and AACU Sponsor January 17 Conference on Liberal Arts/Professional Studies Integration to Enhance Liberal Learning


ANAC and AACU will jointly sponsor a one-day mini-conference on January 17, 2001, as a prelude to the AACU annual meeting in New Orleans, January 18-20. The conference will serve as a national dissemination conference for ANAC's Hewlett project on the integration of liberal arts and professional studies in major programs in both areas. It will also be an opportunity for AACU to introduce findings from its project on accreditation of general education in professional studies programs and to showcase integrative programs of institutions participating in the AACU "Greater Expectations" initiative. The January 17 conference program will be posted on the AACU web site (www.aacu-edu.org) early in November and will be a feature of the ANAC December/January Bulletin.

The conference will emphasize discussions of what has been learned through integration of liberal arts and professional studies that enhances liberal learning in meeting the educational needs of a global information society at the beginning of a new century. It will pay particular attention, as well, to the role that general education plays in settings where priority is placed on integration, what can be learned from professional studies programs in assessing liberal learning, and how the accreditation process might be most effective in furthering educational outcomes from integrative learning environments. Because of the broad implications of conference themes, participation is encouraged from faculty and administrators from across the spectrum of higher education.

The Pew Charitable Trusts Extend ANAC Faculty Work Project Grant


Official word has been received that The Pew Charitable Trusts have extended ANAC's Faculty Work Project grant through June 30, 2001, to provide support for ANAC to disseminate project findings and recommendations widely, to prepare the report manuscript for publication and seek a publisher, and to begin to test project recommendations on member campuses. To date ANAC has accepted invitations to present project results at conferences of the Council of Independent Colleges, Association of American Colleges and Universities, American Association for Higher Education, and Association of Governing Boards. Revisions in the preliminary project report discussed at the Woodrow Wilson Summer Institute at Ithaca College in June are well along. The preliminary report, moreover, is being augmented with case studies and best practices in faculty work from ANAC member institutions, responses to the report from directors of other faculty work projects and leaders of national associations, and essays contributed by faculty work researchers and specialists.

New ANAC Data Exchange Reporting Program Readied for Early November Testing


A combination of slow data entry and the intricacies of ANAC's Year II Data Exchange reporting program have delayed preparations for member institutions to use the Year II data. Beyond the ability to select a comparison group of institutions for benchmarking on each data variable which was the key feature of the Year I reporting program, Year II is adding anonymous institutional ranking and median identification features for each variable. At press time it appears very probable that member institutional representatives, CFO's, and institutional researchers will be able to test and comment on the new reporting program by early November by accessing the ANAC web site (http://www.anac.org).