Join ACTA's Mailing List
Receive our quarterly newsletter, Inside Academe, as well as our e-mail newsletter, ACTA Update, and invitations to events in your area.
Events
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Monday, September 15, 2008
Lawrence Summers Speech: Neal coordinating for Philanthropy Roundtable. E-mail matt@goacta.org for details.
ACTA in the News
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Orlando Sentinal
August 15, 2008
Failing economy makes winning more critical by Mike Bianchi.
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Parade Magazine
July 20, 2008
Are College Coaches Overpaid? by Lyric Wallwork Winik.
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Associated Press
July 16, 2008
`Tenured radical' tries to revive professors group by Justin Pope.
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Minding the Campus
July 11, 2008
Are Accreditors Running The Colleges? by Anne Neal.
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National Association of Scholars
June 20, 2008
If I Ran the Zoo V by Anne Neal.
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Richmond Times-Dispatch
June 27, 2008
Political bias an issue on campus by Reuben Jones.
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Minding the Campus
June 11, 2008
Those Thin-Skinned Professors by Mark Bauerlein.
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Chronicle of Higher Education
June 10, 2008
Accrediting Adivsory Panel Makes What May Be Its Final Demand for Standards by Paul Basken.
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Wall Street Journal
May 23, 2008
Heaven Sustain Us: Environmentalists Have Taken Over the Dorms by Naomi Schaefer Riley.
Asking Questions, Getting Answers
Being a college or university trustee—a good one, anyway—isn’t easy. It requires mastering a tremendous amount of information, learning academic protocols, asking good questions, getting good answers, and much more... all in one’s spare time. With this in mind, ACTA has just released a new guide: Asking Questions, Getting Answers. The guide provides trustees with key questions they can pose—in areas ranging from academic affairs to budgets and costs. And it addresses a real need: In a recent poll by The Chronicle of Higher Education, 40 percent of trustees said they weren’t prepared when they joined their boards. Through this guide and others, ACTA seeks to change that—giving trustees the independent information they need on academic freedom, academic excellence, and accountability.
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. 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.”
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
Forbes gets into the college ranking game
Posted on: 2008-08-20 09:29:49-05:00
For years, the U...
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Sen. Gregg on the Higher Education Act
Posted on: 2008-08-19 17:25:23-05:00
In today's New Hampshire Union Leader, home-state Sen...
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Featured Publications
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Asking Questions, Getting Answers
A Guide for Higher Ed Trustees
This guide outlines some of the key questions trustees should ask regarding the academic and financial operations of their institutions.
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A Report Card on Georgia's System of Public Higher Education
This report card takes a close look at the University System of Georgia, focusing on four key areas of the public's interest.
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The Spellings Commission and You
What Higher Education Trustees Can Do in Light of the Department of Education's Recent Report
According to the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, "urgent reform" is what our nation's universities need, and trustees can help by improving the colleges they oversee.
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ACTA probes the extent to which today's English majors are required to take courses on Shakespeare's work.
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Why Accreditation Doesn't Work and What Policymakers Can Do About It
This policy paper is intended as a primer for policymakers on lessons learned from decades of experience with the federal system of higher education accreditation.
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The Intelligent Donor's Guide to College Giving
First published in 1998, this step-by-step guide to targeted giving is more popular than ever.