Education professor Joanne Chesley-Carter expresses the intensity of student-faculty interaction that is a hallmark of Elon College.

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The will of the people was much clearer in 1932! Election poster from the University of Hartford "Presidential Campaigns That Made America" exhibit reported in the October/November ANAC Bulletin.

'Tis the Season for ANAC Meetings, Conferences, and Member Achievements!

In the universe of ANAC, the Fall is a time for preparations that burst on the scene about this time in a series of meetings and conferences to ring in the New Year. In finishing out the Millennium (as the purists would say), the year 2000 is no different. PR directors got the early jump in an intense November 4-6 ANAC meeting in Baltimore that featured a workshop with David Marcus, senior writer at US News and World Report, a Cecil Staton preview of the ANAC Institutional Profiles project report, and good advice from Maggy Ralbovsky, ANAC's media adviser. (Story continued below.)

Articles In This Issue:

In The Headlines:

• Butler University Names New President
• Elon College Tops NSSE Survey; To Become Elon University
• University of Redlands Alumni Head Gore Team
• Drake University Class Featured in CNN Post-Election Feature

ANAC Projects and Activities:

• Revision of Faculty Work Project Manuscript Completed
• Year II ANAC Data Exchange Report Undergoes Online Tests
• Hewlett Project Expands Boundaries of Liberal Learning
• ANAC PR Directors Create Media Relations Network
• Presidents, Institutional Representatives, and CFO's to Discuss ANAC 2005

Member Campus News:

• Drury University Outreach to Springfield and Rural Missouri Schools
• The Sage Colleges Dedicates New Fine Arts Building
• Susquehanna University Completes Capital Campaign
• Hamline University Plans Charter High School; Partners with Middle Schools
• University of Redlands' Interdisciplinary Approach to Faculty Diversity
• North Central College "Coach of the Century"
• Creative Extremes to Gain Admission at Elon College

ANAC Opportunities at The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation:

• Teachers as Scholars Program Seeks Institutional Applications

Editorials and Commentary:

• Arthur Levine's Vision of Future Higher Education
• Ann Kelleher, "An Abrogation of Leadership? US Foreign Policy and the Presidential Election"

What's Ahead—Upcoming Events:

• Save the Dates (tentative):
  June 12-14 - ANAC 2005 Planning Conference,
  June 14-16 - 2001 Woodrow Wilson Summer Institute
• Call for Presentation Proposals: Association for Integrative Studies Conference, October 4-7, 2001 (Proposal Deadline: March 30, 2001)

Between January 17 and February 10, 2001, ANAC holds four meeting and conference events:

• January 17 (with AACU): "Liberal Learning for the Future: Integrating Liberal Arts, Professional Studies, and Technology" (Click on "Upcoming Events" link at ANAC web site - http://www.anac.org)
  • Other ANAC events in New Orleans include January 17-18 Institutional Representatives meeting, January 20 Hewlett project coordinators meeting, and two AACU Conference sessions.
• January 30 (at NAICU): Meeting of ANAC Presidents Council, Washington DC.
• February 1 (at AAHE): Meeting of ANAC Faculty Work Project, Tampa
  • ANAC will also sponsor an AAHE Conference workshop on faculty work differentiation and a session on the ANAC Faculty Work Project report.
• February 8-10, ANAC CFO Benchmarking Conference, University of Redlands.

In the Headlines:


Butler University announces the appointment of Dr. Bobby Fong, as the University's 20th president in its 145 year history, effective June 1, 2001. Dean of faculty at Hamilton College since 1995, Fong brings impressive credentials to Butler, including service as chairperson of the board of the Association of American Colleges and Universities and on regional accreditation teams at institutions as diverse as ANAC member Saint Mary's College of California, Swarthmore, and Brigham Young University. A professor of English, his most recent work is as co-editor of Oxford's Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (2000). Reflecting a wide-ranging intellect, his publications cover a spectrum that includes Liberal Education, Christian Scholar's Review, and Baseball Digest. American born of Chinese immigrant parents, Fong is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard.

Elon College has received national media recognition for being one of only four institutions among 276 colleges and universities surveyed that scored in the top 20 percent on each of five benchmarks of quality in engaging students: level of academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, student interactions with faculty members, enriching educational experiences, and a supportive campus environment. Sponsored by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and The Pew Forum on Undergraduate Learning, the National Survey of Student Engagement gathered assessments on the quality of their education from 63,000 students. Six ANAC member institutions participated in the NSSE survey. Elon has been named one of the top ten colleges and universities in the nation in the 2001 edition of the Kaplan Newsweek College Catalog for the high level of individual academic attention that its faculty offer to students. In a future issue the Bulletin will provide an analysis of findings in the NSSE survey and how ANAC members compare with other types of institutions on a variety of measures of student engagement.

Elon College has also declared its intention to become Elon University on June 1, 2001, the third ANAC member to change its name to "university" in the past year. In announcing the change, President Leo M. Lambert indicated that the new name celebrates a surpassing of goals Elon established in 1994 in its "Elon Vision" strategic plan to reach a level "worthy of recognition as a comprehensive undergraduate university."

University of Redlands alumni led the Al Gore fight for the presidency that riveted the nation's attention on Florida after the November 7 election. Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher (class of 1946) headed up the Gore Florida recount effort. David Boies (class of '64), known for leading the Justice Department anti-trust suit against Microsoft, was the Gore team's chief legal counsel in Florida, and Mark Fabiani (class of '79) is Gore's chief spokesperson.

Drake University also got into the post-election act through a four-minute CNN broadcast segment with students in a course called the American Electoral Process. CNN reporter Jeff Flock interviewed students in Professor Arthur Sanders' class on the role of the media in the election. According to Sanders, students gained a new appreciation of the pressures on news reporters to fit substantive and interesting reports into very short time blocks. Commented CNN Senior Producer David Steck, "Four minutes is eternity. We were lucky to get that much time for the story."