Jerry Berberet and Ron Troyer (Drake University), chair, participate in institutional representatives meeting.

A special place to reflect on international issues on the PLU campus.

• ANAC Presidents Council and Institutional Representatives Hold Summer Meetings
  
• PLU Becomes Coordinating Campus for ANACSA
  
• ANAC Data Exchange Gathers Year IV Member Data
  
• Initial ANAC Media Project Completed

ANAC Presidents Council and Institutional Representatives Hold Summer Meetings

The ANAC Presidents Council and the member institutional representatives held their summer meetings in association with the Senior Leadership Conference at North Central College. In addition to setting member dues and approving ANAC's budget for the 2002-03 year, the Presidents Council named president Leo Lambert of Elon University as a new member of the ANAC Executive Committee. The institutional representatives elected Steve Good, vice president for academic affairs at Drury University, as chair-elect. The Reps endorsed ANAC Academy as ANAC's highest priority for future development; approved Pacific Lutheran University as the coordinating campus for the ANACSA (ANAC Study Abroad) consortium; reviewed the preliminary program for the ANAC/AACU conference, November 7-9, at Butler University; initiated planning for the 2003 Woodrow Wilson Summer Institute; and endorsed the continuation of ANAC's distance learning task force.

(from left) Paul Menzel, Pacific Lutheran, Sally Lawrence, Sage Colleges, and Dan McAlexander, Belmont University, during the Reps meeting.

PLU Becomes Coordinating Campus for ANACSA

ANAC will undertake an ambitious planning process to develop collaborative international studies and languages programs, the first step being a decision to name Pacific Lutheran University as the "home" campus to coordinate ANACSA, the ANAC study abroad consortium. Pacific Lutheran recently received a $4 million grant to establish the Wang International Center with a special focus on East Asia and has been actively expanding study abroad opportunities for PLU students. The goal of ANACSA is to provide access for all ANAC students to member foreign study programs in all parts of the world. Working together, PLU and ANAC will plan a collaborative international education program for implementation as early as next summer. Janet Rasmussen, one-time PLU faculty member and former president of Hollins College, has been named to direct the Wang Center and to serve as coordinator of the PLU-ANAC planning process.

ANAC Data Exchange Gathers Year IV Member Data

ANAC member institutional researchers are once again entering data in the ANAC Data Exchange for member comparisons and benchmarking. The Exchange, now in its fourth year, gathers more than 250 pieces of data from IPEDS, Common Data Set, and internally generated measures. For the first time, IPEDS has made its data available on line, making it possible that this data can be entered just once to meet the needs of both IPEDS and the Exchange. The Exchange plans to complete data entry in July and to prepare for Year IV reporting and benchmarking by the end of the summer.

Initial ANAC Media Project Completed

The ANAC Presidents Council established the ANAC Media Project more than two years ago to develop relationships with major media outlets in order to educate the media to the role that private comprehensive colleges and universities play in meeting society's educational needs and expectations and to raise the profile of ANAC member institutions. The project grew out of a sense that within and without higher education there is limited understanding that these institutions, primarily Carnegie classified Masters I and II, have features that distinguish them from both liberal arts colleges and large research universities in advantageous ways at a time when educational expectations are ratcheting upwards. Being of manageable size and possessing liberal arts and professional programs, for example, ANAC members have the capacity to integrate strengths of each to achieve improved learning outcomes.

During the just-completed initial phase of the project, ANAC contracted with Morrison and Tyson Communications to act as national media advisor, a relationship that resulted in numerous media visits involving member presidents and media representatives in New York, Washington, DC, and Boston. Several news stories resulted from these visits. In addition ANAC developed a network of member PR directors that has held several meetings and conferences in connection with the American Marketing Association's annual Symposium on the Marketing of Higher Education. The PR directors network has helped with the exchange of PR information among member campuses and ways that ANAC members describe themselves.