'U' honored for excellence in education

By Courtney Crimmins

For the Daily

The Association of American Colleges and Universities recently named the University to its Greater Expectations Initiative - a list of AAC&U's choices for institutions that excel in setting goals for higher education.

The association aims to achieve excellence in higher education through honoring academic programs.

Constance Cook, director of the University's Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, said, "The AAC&U was looking for excellence in universities with opportunities that reach the entire student body in all its diverse forms."

AAC&U's Greater Expectations Initiative honored 16 schools including Duke University and University of Southern California. In the multi-year initiative, AAC&U conducts a national search of colleges, universities and community colleges to define 21st Century undergraduate education and to find strategies for achieving them.

AAC&U Vice President and Director of Greater Expectations Andrea Leskes recognized the University as a "leadership institution" because it "offers innovative programs and a systemic approach to improve learning by all students," she said in a written statement.

"Everybody knows the U of M does a good job educating graduate students, this is a national vote of confidence in the quality of U of M undergraduate education," Cook said.

The Greater Expectations Initiative looked at colleges and universities and considered programs occurring inside and outside of the classroom. Representatives conduct interviews, tour campuses and look at the opportunities available to students in an attempt to narrow 73 applicant institutions to 16 qualified schools.

AAC&U described these schools as those that "most strongly emphasize critical thinking about complex problems, effective communication and the ability to contribute to a diverse society as important outcomes of a powerfully lasting undergraduate education."

As a large institution, the University has numerous programs and opportunities, but what makes it special in the eyes of the interviewer was "the number of different ways we offer undergraduates a small college experience in a large university particularly learning communities, undergraduate research programs and the program on Inter Group Relations, Conflict and Communication," Cook said.

Colgate, another one of the 16 schools recognized by the AAC&U, exemplifies the qualities honored by "encouraging students to think independently and intellectually" and was recognized in part for its "innovative off-campus study program that gives students an opportunity to study with professors abroad and in other U.S. cities in their field," AAC&U spokesperson Sarah Jarvis said.

Jarvis said this honor will further all 16 schools' standings with prospective students.

"Any time a school gets an honor, it carries weight with certain people, but there is no way to tell how much influence it will have."