American Council Of Trustees and Alumni

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Events

  • Thursday, July 31, 2008

    American Legislative Exchange Council Meeting: Neal to participate in Chicago.

ACTA in the News

Bradley Project Puts Focus on American History and Identity

The Bradley Project recently published a report entitled E Pluribus Unum, the outgrowth of a two-year study of American identity by distinguished scholars and public intellectuals. Given our longtime interest in the teaching of American history and the preparation of citizens, ACTA was pleased to coordinate the project—which included a poll of Americans by HarrisInteractive.

The poll showed that while most Americans believe in an American identity, over six in ten think it’s weakening. Most troublingly, American identity seems weakest among the young—the very generation that, by and large, is not being taught its nation’s history in college classrooms. (For more on this, see ACTA’s reports Losing America’s Memory and The Hollow Core.) Not surprisingly, E Pluribus Unum has drawn national attention, and ACTA friend David McCullough has called it “the clearest, most powerful summons yet, to all of us, to restore the American story to its rightful, vital place in American life and in how we educate our children” and said it “couldn’t be more timely and important.”

If you would like to read the report for yourself—especially in light of Independence Day—please visit www.bradleyproject.org.

Register for ATHENA

Registration is now open for ACTA’s 2008 ATHENA Roundtable, our annual meeting. This year’s will be held at the New York Historical Society on October 17. Speakers will include writer Roger Rosenblatt—whose latest novel, Beet, offers a marvelously satirical look at the PC university—as well as City University of New York Board of Trustees chairman Benno Schmidt, Yale professor Donald Kagan, former University of Colorado president Hank Brown, and others. Preceding the Roundtable, on October 16, Josiah Bunting III—a Grant biographer and former head of three colleges—will lead a tour of the Society’s new Grant and Lee exhibit. On Friday evening, October 17, following the Roundtable, ACTA will award the Fourth Annual Philip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to Liberal Arts Education. Please join us!

Latest From ACTA's Blog - ACTA's Must-Reads

Minnesota jumpstarts accountability

Posted on: 2008-06-30 15:28:52-05:00

Three cheers to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system for its newly launched "accountability dashboard," a public, online mechanism for tracking, rating, and publishing vital information about enrollment, retention, student engagement, costs, educational quality, graduation rates, and other important indices at its thirty-two campuses...

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Georgia makes the right move

Posted on: 2008-06-17 14:22:31-05:00

The recent decision by the University System of Georgia to scrap a hastily proposed and vague curriculum focused on global awareness is a singular victory for academic standards and excellence...

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