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ANAC Projects & Activities:

• Hewlett Project Holds Successful Conference with AACU on January 17
• ANAC Faculty Work Project Meets and Presents at AAHE Faculty Roles and Rewards Conference, February 1-4
• ANAC President Media Sessions at The Chronicle of Higher Education and USA Today
• ANAC Institutional Representatives Retreat, March 16-17
• ANACSA Initial Programs Offered during Summer 2001

Hewlett Project Holds Successful January 17 Conference with AACU

As a pre-conference to the AACU Conference in New Orleans, January 18-20, ANAC sponsored with AACU a January 17 conference on the theme, "Liberal Learning for the Future: Integrating Liberal Arts, Professional Studies, and Technology." Designed as a second national dissemination conference for the outcomes of ANAC's William and Flora Hewlett Foundation project that pairs liberal and professional studies majors, the conference also included presentations from AACU's "Greater Expectations" and "Accreditation and Assessment" projects. As a consequence, case studies were presented from ANAC Hewlett project members Mercer University, Drury University, The Sage Colleges, and Susquehanna University, but also institutions as diverse as Audry Cohen College, Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and the US Air Force Academy.

Provost Paul Menzel of PLU introduces Hewlett project panelists (from left) Jean Poppei, Sage Colleges, Clifton Petty, Drury, and James Brock, Susquehanna, at the January 17 "Liberal Learning and the Future" Conference.

John Nichols, AACU senior fellow and director of AACU's assessment and accreditation project presented an initial report and invited responses to an endeavor that is rethinking liberal learning for a 21st Century global information society with technology, accreditation, and assessment in mind. Andrea Leskes, AACU vice president and director of the Greater Expectations project spoke of the need for entire institutions to commit to raise their performance expectations. Carol Geary Schneider, AACU president, described a liberal learning becoming more contextualized and receptive to diverse voices (what she labeled "situated learning") and Edwin Epstein, dean of the School of Business at Saint Mary's College of California, spoke of the interdisciplinary liberal arts roots that frame every professional field. As one conclusion, the conference unveiled a future liberal learning much less normative than the days of preoccupation with a canon, a liberal learning that will be a kind of hybrid stew of insights regarding the human condition and the good life from diverse moral and cultural traditions, ethnic and gender perspectives, and professional as well as liberal arts disciplines. Yet, if anything, a quest for the whole appears at least as strong as ever in the liberal learning tradition.

ANAC Faculty Work Project Meets and Presents at AAHE Faculty Roles and Rewards Conference, February 1-4

Eleven members of the ANAC Faculty Work Project Phase II "think tank" met February 1, in Tampa, at the beginning of the AAHE Conference on Faculty Roles and Rewards. The group supported the design for the 2001 Woodrow Wilson Summer Institute proposed by ANAC's institutional representatives and proposed additional features such as a poster session "marketplace for ideas" that will enrich the sharing of best practices. The group also discussed directions the next iteration of the project might take, noting that the shift in foundation funding toward K-12 and communities suggests the growing impact of outreach on the faculty professional model. This had not been significantly considered in the ANAC institutional context. The group responded approvingly to an initiative to create an ANAC faculty affinity group coordinated by project manager Linda McMillin.

ANAC's faculty work project team of McMillin; Marion Terenzio, The Sage Colleges, and Lawry Finsen, University of Redlands, presented the project results and recommendations at a Conference session to a packed room. There appears to be significant advance interest in the published project report. In addition McMillin and project consultant Jon Wergin led a half-day workshop on faculty workload differentiation that was fully subscribed, including participants from all types of institutions. Garry Brodhead, associate provost at Ithaca College, described a project of seven Ithaca departments to implement differentiated workload plans. The ground rules: no new positions, no increased budgets, and no decrease in student credit hours. Notably, several participants at the workshop indicated that their institutions are experimenting with differentiated workload plans.

ANAC President Media Sessions at The Chronicle of Higher Education and USA Today

Four ANAC member presidents: Loren Anderson, Pacific Lutheran University; Jeanne Neff, The Sage Colleges; Harold R. Wilde, North Central College, and James Appleton, University of Redlands, met with senior editors of The Chronicle of Higher Education, and USA Today, on January 29, in association with their attendance at the NAICU Conference and participation in the ANAC Presidents Council meeting. Chronicle editor Scott Jaschik hosted the presidents in a wide-ranging conversation that included Kit Lively, senior editor for money & management; Ana Cox, senior editor for faculty; and Andy Brownstein, senior editor on students and athletics. At USA Today the presidents met with education reporter Mary Beth Marklein. The following day President Anderson was quoted in USA Today in a story on the impact of Princeton University's announcement to shift more of student financial aid from loans to grants. Maggy Ralbovsky, ANAC's media advisor, arranged the sessions.

ANAC Institutional Representatives Retreat, March 16-17

ANAC's institutional representatives will hold a strategic planning retreat in Cocoa Beach, Florida, on March 16-17. Holding their first extended meeting since their June 1998 retreat in Santa Cruz, the "Reps" will focus on strategic directions for ANAC over the next several years ("ANAC 2005"), developing successor projects to the Pew and Hewlett grants in the areas of faculty work and curriculum, and devising approaches to foundations and other possible funders. The Reps will also plan the June 13-14 ANAC 2005 planning meeting at Ithaca College where participation will also include several presidents, CFO's, faculty, and others.

ANACSA Set to Begin Programs during Summer 2001

Summer programs several by several ANACSA members (ANAC Study Abroad) will inaugurate the consortium this summer. These include Drake University programs in China, Cuba, France, Germany, Mexico, and Spain; Belmont University in China; Ithaca College in the Czech Republic; and Drury University in China. Students must be recommended for participation by their home campus study abroad office and apply for participation and pay fees to the host institution offering the summer program. For further information contact ANACSA coordinator, Donna Cheshire, director of international programs and services at the University of the Pacific (dcheshir@uop.edu). ANAC international program directors will meet on Sunday, May 27, in Philadelphia, just prior to the annual conference of NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

North Central College students reflect the global student diversity that is characteristic on ANAC member campuses today. Photo by Herb Shenkin.