2006 Annual Meeting

ACAD Annual Meeting Program
January 25-28, 2006
Washington, D.C.

Program Chair: Stephen C. Ainlay, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA 01610. Phone: 508-793-2541. Email: sainlay@holycross.edu. Fax: 508-793-3791.

Program Committee: Stephen C. Ainlay, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College, College of the Holy Cross; Michele Dominy, Dean of the College, Bard College; Steve Briggs, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, College of New Jersey; Robert Thompson, Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Duke University.

Program Title: "Articulating the Value and Managing the Culture of Liberal Education."

Program Description: This theme focuses attention on the apparent disconnect between two views of liberal education. One view, held by many in the academy, holds that liberal education is the most powerful and appropriate form of education to prepare students to function in the 21st century. A second view, often attributed to U.S. society in general, holds that liberal education is out of touch with contemporary realities, an unaffordable luxury, or simply impractical. ACAD seeks to examine this disconnect and focus on the role of academic deans in making the value of liberal education more evident and salient by both articulating the value and managing the culture of liberal education.

Friday, January 27th ACAD Luncheon Speaker: W. Robert Connor, President of the Teagle Foundation.
W. Robert Connor joined the Teagle Foundation in May of 2003. He retired from Princeton University in 1989 as the Andrew Fleming West Professor of Classics, emeritus. After leaving Princeton, he served as the President and Director of National Humanities Center in North Carolina, an independent center for advanced study in literature, history, philosophy, and all other humanistic fields. He is the author of many scholarly works. His books include: Greek Orations (University of Michigan Press, 1996); Theopompus and Fifth Century Athens (Harvard Press for the Center of Hellenic Studies, 1968); The New Politicians of Fifth Century Athens (Princeton University Press, 1971); and, Thucydides (Princeton University Press, 1984). He has received numerous awards and honors. The Teagle Foundation places a “special emphasis on seeing that today’s students have a challenging, wide ranging and enriching college education (from the Teagle website)” and has worked effectively with institutions to maintain high standards while working with limited resources. Thus, Dr. Connor is especially well-placed to speak to the conference theme.

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