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Bishop Leonidas Hamline, Hamline University's founding benefactor.

Winter view of University of Hartford residential village.

    
The seal of Simmons College,
ANAC's newest member.

ANAC Looks to Sharpen Focus in 2002

During 2001, the Associated New American Colleges took a hard look at itself through the ANAC 2005 planning process. ANAC 2005 helped to bring a realization that ANAC needs to move from its founding and early development phase to a state of organizational maturity. Year 2002 will be a time of focusing on the membership, both in terms of effective member involvement and activities of greatest value to members. Several goals stand out in sharpening this focus:

• Expand roundtable opportunities for ANAC affinity groups (e.g., presidents, provosts, CFO, deans, faculty, etc.) to exchange views and discuss issues of greatest common concern.
• Establish "ANAC Academy" as a comprehensive structure for member faculty professional development.
  
• Refine the ANAC Data Exchange and CFO financial benchmarking for member strategic planning and decision-making.
  
• Make member study group activities central in all grant-funded projects.
  
• Increase ANAC's usefulness as a marketing resource in higher education's highly competitive and changing environment.
  

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Articles In This Issue:

In the Headlines

• ANAC Member Applications Bode Well for Fall 2002 Class
  
• US News "Best Values" Ratings Name ANAC Members
  
• ANAC Members Rank High in Study Abroad
• Revisions to ANAC By Laws Approved
• Simmons College Becomes Newest ANAC Member
  

ANAC Projects and Activities

• ANAC Presidents Visit US News
• ANAC Presidents Council Meets during NAICU Conference
• Institutional Representatives Meet following AACU Conference
  
• CFO Benchmarking Conference at Elon University
  
• Data Exchange Reports 1998-2001 Data; Prepares to Collect 2001-02 Data
  
• Faculty Work Project Readies Next Phase
• University of Hartford Summer Program Added to ANACSA
  

ANAC Members in the News

• Dr. Bobby Fong Inaugurated 20th President of Butler University
• Justice Thomas Teaches at Drake University Law School
  
• Drury Faculty Member Luge Composition Played at Winter Olympics
  
• Elon University Welcomes Ehud Barak; Doctorate in Physical Therapy Approved
  
• $4 Million Gift Enables PLU to Establish Wang International Center
  
• Quinnipiac University Responds to September 11; Establishes Albert Schweitzer Institute and Latin American Studies Program
  
• Redlands President Honored; University Creates New Programs
  
• Sage Two-Year College Becomes Four Year; NCATE Accredits Education Programs
  
• Valparaiso University Renovates Nursing Facilities; Establishes MBA with Environmental Focus
  

ANAC Commentary

• President Bobby Fong, "Learning Well the Best Revenge"
  
• Pew Research Center Poll Reveals Contrasting Post-September 11 Views of America
  
• Jay Mathews on "Choosing the College That Fits Best"

ANAC Upcoming Events

• ANAC Members Invited to Sponsor New Faculty at New Teacher Workshop

ANAC CFOs are all smiles at Elon University.

ANAC Looks to Sharpen Focus in 2002 (contd.)

Two major 2002 events are particularly designed to address these goals:

1. ANAC Senior Leadership Conference, June 14-15, at North Central College. Member college and university leaders (presidents and chief academic, finance, and student affairs officers) will gather as institutional teams to discuss common administrative concerns and steps they might take through ANAC to advance member strategic interests.
   
   
2. "Rethinking Faculty Work and Liberal Learning" will be the theme of a conference ANAC is cosponsoring with the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU), November 7-9, at member Butler University. This conference will follow the institutional team format of the ANAC Woodrow Wilson Summer Institute, serving both as the 2002 Institute and as a kick-off event for ANAC Academy.

Winter comes even to the University of Redlands in southern California, but the snow stays well up in the mountains overlooking campus.

ANAC Member Applications Bode Well for Fall 2002 Class

The strong admissions performance of ANAC members in recent years appears to be continuing for the incoming class of Fall 2002. Many member institutions report increases in undergraduate applications in the 15-30% range, making it tempting to speculate that the ANAC focus on liberal arts and career development is reassuring to prospective students in uncertain economic times. Increases are also reported in professional school applications, especially law where some members are reporting application increases well ahead of last year. The breakdown of men and women applicants is about 50/50. It is still uncertain whether the boom in applications will translate into larger enrollments in the fall. Although LSAT test-taking is up, students appear to be applying to more law schools than in the past.

According to a February 15 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the admissions upswing has also affected positively applications in business, nursing, pharmacy, and engineering. According to the Chronicle, the downturn in the economy appears to have influenced decisions to enroll in professional programs. Within the enlarged pool of applicants are students recently laid off who are returning to school to improve prospects for future employment and employees still working who are anxious to demonstrate added value to their employers.

US News "Best Values" Ratings Name ANAC Members

Several ANAC members are highly rated in the US News "Best Values" rankings for 2001-02. Ithaca College; Drake, Drury, Hamline, Valparaiso, and Pacific Lutheran universities; and University of Redlands are among those named best values based on a formula relating their US News academic quality ranking to their net cost of attendance for a student who receives the average level of financial aid. Drury toped the list for Midwest Masters institutions. The average discount from the total cost awarded by the named ANAC members ranged from 30-43%.

ANAC Members Rank High in Study Abroad

According to the Institute of International Education (IIE), only 3% of American college graduates have studied abroad. In its latest rankings of leading international campuses, IIE ranked several ANAC members in the top twenty of Masters institutions nationally, both in their percentage and absolute number of graduates (1999-2000) who studied abroad. The ANAC members listed in these groupings and their rankings are:

Revisions to ANAC By Laws Approved

ANAC institutional representatives and Presidents Council have approved revisions in the ANAC By Laws, the first changes since ANAC's founding in 1995. Although mostly of a housekeeping nature to bring the by laws into conformity with recent practice, the changes pinpoint responsibilities more clearly and streamline the governance process in order to provide more opportunity for member presidents and provosts to focus on matters of institutional and professional concern. The "heavy lifting" of governance will be handled in the ANAC Executive Committee, a joint body composed of the Presidents Council and institutional representative leadership, with membership on staggered terms in order to assure continuity. The revised by laws also provide for task forces as needed rather than standing committees and regular review of potential new members and ANAC's executive director. Kudos to Betty Ivey, past chair of the institutional representatives and provost emerita at the University of Hartford, whose steadfast leadership guided the by law revision process.

Simmons College Becomes Newest ANAC Member

Simmons College, founded in 1899, recently accepted an invitation to join ANAC. Located in Boston, Simmons is a historic women's college that has evolved into the Masters I classification with approximately 3,500 students and graduate schools in health studies, library and information science, management, and social work. Daniel Cheever is president of Simmons and Lynne Goodstein, dean of arts and sciences and professional studies, will act as institutional representative. ANAC welcomes Simmons College and we look forward to a rewarding colleagueship.