For all deans and directors of accredited graduate programs of social work.
Useful Links
The National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work
The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC)
Founded in 1956 and based in Washington, DC, the Council is an association of nearly 500 independent, liberal arts colleges and universities that work together to support college leadership, advance institutional excellence, and enhance private higher education’s contributions to society. It works with college presidents, academic vice presidents, other administrators, and faculty, to provide services that help its member institutions enhance educational programs, improve their administrative and financial performance, and increase their institutional visibility.
Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences (CCAS)
A national association of baccalaureate degree-granting colleges of arts and sciences whose purpose is to sustain the arts and sciences as a leading influence in American higher education. Eligibility for membership extends to baccalaureate degree-granting arts and sciences units in accredited universities and colleges, both public and private. The dean of an arts and sciences unit is the voting representative in the Council.
Association for Institutional Research Professional Development Institutes
Each summer the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) offers two professional development Institutes that provide opportunities for higher education faculty, administrators, and graduate students to enhance their skills in a particular area of institutional research. The Institutes provide hands-on training, interaction with leading institutional researchers, and networking opportunities.
The Phi Beta Kappa Society
Five students at the College of William and Mary founded Phi Beta Kappa in 1776, during the American Revolution. For over two and a quarter centuries, the Society has embraced the principles of freedom of inquiry and liberty of thought and expression. Laptops have replaced quill pens, but these ideas, symbolized on Phi Beta Kappa’s distinctive gold key, still lay the foundations of personal freedom, scientific inquiry, liberty of conscience and creative endeavor.
Phi Beta Kappa celebrates and advocates excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. Its campus chapters invite for induction the most outstanding arts and sciences students at America’s leading colleges and universities. The Society sponsors activities to advance these studies — the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences — in higher education and in society at large.
Since 2003, ACAD and The Phi Beta Kappa Society have co-sponsored three biennial conferences that reflect each organizations commitment to the ideals of the liberal arts education. Each conference attempts to go beyond the typical “nuts and bolts” of academic administration and focus on re-igniting the intellectual spark that brought people to academics in the first place. The next ACAD/PBK joint conference is expected to take place in Fall of 2011.
The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)
AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. Its members are committed to extending the advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Founded in 1915, AAC&U now comprises 1,200 member institutions—including accredited public and private colleges and universities of every type and size. The ACAD Offices are housed in the AAC&U building, and ACAD was established in 1945 as a national organization for academic deans only from institutions belonging to AAC&U. That restriction was removed in 1968, and membership was opened to all academic officers. The historic affiliation between the two organizations continues through their mutual commitment to fostering liberal education, through the co-sponsorship of meetings and other collaborative programming efforts, and through some joint membership recruitment efforts. Most ACAD members continue to come from AAC&U member institutions. For information on membership in AAC&U, contact Dennis Renner, Director of Membership at renner@aacu.org.