Provost Bill Berry of Butler University introduces plenary speakers.

Marian MacCurdy describes Ithaca College faculty workload project.

Provosts Ron Troyer (l), Drake University and James Pence, Pacific Lutheran, discuss planning for international education.

Location is a key to North Central College success.

• ANAC/AACU Conference at Butler University Links Learning Research with New Pedagogies and Faculty Work
• NSSE 2002 Results Underscore ANAC Member Engagement with Students
  
• ANAC Academy, International Education, and Online Learning Planning Groups Prepare Preliminary Reports
  
• North Central College and University of Dayton Reflect Community Spirit of ANAC Members During the Holidays

ANAC/AACU Conference at Butler University Links Learning Research with New Pedagogies and Faculty Work

In focusing on applications of current research on how students learn, the ANAC/AACU Network for Academic Renewal Conference at Butler University, November 7-9, probed not only ways that pedagogies and faculty work patterns might be adapted to improve student learning, but also ways that faculty and their institutions might collaborate more effectively in support of teaching and learning. Featured speakers Marcia Baxter-Magolda of Miami University of Ohio and Karen Kashmanian Oates of George Mason University demonstrated that research findings on learning both provide guidance for developing effective pedagogies and help faculty to recognize and address student needs more fully at various stages of student learning development.

Speakers such as President Doug Bennett of Earlham College and faculty members Linda McMillin (Susquehanna University) and Susan Traverso (North Central College), explored faculty and administrator motivation, roles, and faculty and institutional priorities as a basis for considering how collaboration might best occur. Tom Longin, Association of Governing Boards, and E.B. Wilson, former corporate CEO and St. Lawrence University board chair, brought governance and trustee involvement into the discussion to complete a comprehensive conference analysis of ways higher education can better serve its learning mission. Excerpts of the McMillin and Traverso remarks are presented in the Commentary section of this Bulletin issue.

(l to r) Linda McMillin, Jon Wergin, and Susan Traverso discuss faculty-institutional collaboration during a conference break.

A number of ANAC members sent faculty-administrator teams in order to use the conference as a setting to address institutional priorities on their campuses. The conference was structured to provide both institutional case studies of good practice in teaching and learning and opportunities for small group discussion of applications and problem-solving. ANAC members Butler, Elon, Ithaca, and Drake presented case studies, as part of a conference program that included cases from research universities and liberal arts and community colleges. Conference themes will be expanded at the 2003 ANAC Woodrow Wilson Summer Institute at Hampton University, June 18-21, which will explore integrative learning with special attention to academic affairs-student life collaboration; diversity, civic, and international issues; and processes for connecting theory and practice effectively.

Margaret Brabant, Butler, and Dick Ferguson, Dayton, discuss ways that they might work together in community outreach programs.

NSSE 2002 Results Underscore ANAC Member Engagement with Students

ANAC members who report on their participation in the National Survey of Student Engagement receive high marks from the freshmen and seniors who complete the survey in comparisons with both liberals arts colleges and masters colleges and universities, according to the third year report on the NSSE survey released in November. Entitled From Promise to Progress: How Colleges and Universities Are Using Student Engagement Results to Improve Collegiate Quality (website: www.iub.edu/~nsse), the 2002 report, indeed, concludes that 87 percent of survey takers rate their overall experience as good or excellent and 80 percent say they would probably attend the same institution if they had it to do over. In contrast, transfer undergraduates appear considerably less engaged, a potentially troubling finding as two-fifths of all seniors transferred to the institution from which they will graduate.

The five benchmarks of engagement on which students are asked to rate their institution:

• Level of academic challenge
  
• Active and collaborative learning
  
• Student-faculty interaction
  
• Enriching educational experiences
  
• Supportive campus environment

Some of the key findings (perhaps no surprises here), according to the 2002 report:

• Diversity experiences heighten student engagement and overall college satisfaction.
  
• International students are more engaged overall than American students.
  
• Women majoring in science, engineering and math study more and interact more with faculty members than students in other majors.
  
• Participating in a learning community enhances the overall quality of the educational experience.
  
• 62 percent of first-year students and 47 percent of seniors never worked with faculty members on activities other than coursework.
  
• 41 percent of first-year students and 26 percent of seniors never discussed ideas from their reading or classes with faculty members outside of class.
  
• About two fifths of all students spend ten or fewer hours per week preparing for class.

Among ANAC members, Hamline University reports continuing to rank above the national average and in peer comparisons on four of the five survey categories, Elon University ranks in the top 10 percent of all master's institutions that participated in the survey, and Drury University ranked in the top 10 percent of all master's institutions in first-year student responses in four of the five categories. Elon students, for example, responded 15-45 percent more positively on average on questions of engagement with experiential learning (e.g., internships, community service, study abroad) and 96-99 percent of first-year students noted approvingly Drury's role in helping them to learn to think critically, work with others, write clearly, and learn on their own. For further information on results on specific questions, go to the ANAC website (http://www.anac.org) where there are links to the websites of all ANAC members.

A view of the Elon University campus.

ANAC Academy, International Education, and Online Learning Planning Groups Prepare Reports

The three planning groups ANAC has established to analyze opportunities for collaborative projects in faculty/staff professional development, international education, and online learning have been meeting in person, via email, and on the telephone over the past few months and are now preparing preliminary reports and recommendations for the ANAC institutional representatives meeting in Seattle on January 22, and the Presidents Council meeting in Washington, DC, on January 27. The online learning group is exploring the feasibility of and ANAC member interest in an online summer session; the ANAC Academy group has outlined an Academy administrative structure that might be housed on a member campus to coordinate a variety of program mechanisms, including individual member and online offerings; and the international program planning group is considering ways of significantly expanding study abroad and faculty development opportunities across undergraduate, graduate, and professional studies.

Both the ANAC Academy and the international program planning groups will meet in connection with the AACU conference in Seattle in January, the Academy group on January 21 to finalize their presentation to the institutional representatives on January 22, and the international group on January 25, immediately following the AACU conference in order to incorporate input from the January 22 institutional representatives meeting for presentation to the Presidents Council on January 27. All three planning groups will present their final report and recommendations to the institutional representatives meeting on June 18, 2003, at Hampton University, and then all three reports will move on to the Presidents Council.

Hampton University: "Home by the Sea"

North Central College and Dayton University Reflect the Community Spirit of ANAC Members During the Holidays

The spirit of volunteerism and community service is alive and well this holiday season. At North Central College, several creative projects suggest that the ethos of giving is pervasive. For the tenth consecutive year, North Central student "Angel Tree" elves will deliver 250 teddy bears and 300 pairs of mittens gathered in a campus-wide gift drive to 3, 4, and 5-year olds from inner-city Chicago and Aurora. In another example, students in the College's entrepreneurship program constructed and painted five elaborate dollhouses being raffled off just before Christmas in a joint project with a Naperville interior decorating firm. And, the North Central baseball team is hosting three "Kids Nite Out" recreational events at Merner Fieldhouse to enable parents to spend quiet time together, to shop for gifts, or to attend events associated with the holidays.

The big holiday event at the University of Dayton occurred on December 8, at UD's 39th annual "Christmas on Campus." Thousands of community adults and children come to campus for a day of gifts, entertainment, games, crafts, a petting zoo, food, and international culture exhibits that culminated with an evening mass and musical celebration of Christmas attended by 4,000 persons. Each child was sponsored by a UD student and the first stop was a big table loaded with coats, hats, mittens, scarves, and other items for those in need donated by students, faculty and staff.