• AASCU’s 2019 Academic Affairs Summer Meeting Fosters Innovation

    More than 250 participants attended AASCU’s 2019 Academic Affairs Summer Meeting in Minneapolis from July 25-27. With the theme "Responding to Challenges Through Innovation,” the meeting focused on how campuses are transforming practices and fostering cultures of change.

    Pre-conference events explored redefining education preparation in the U.S., the facilitation of general education transfer agreements, and rural-serving AASCU institutions and also featured a working session for women provosts.
     
    The meeting officially began with a plenary by Steven Mintz, special advisor to the president for student success and strategic initiatives at Hunter College of the City University of New York, on critical challenges to student success efforts. Read Mintz’s reflections on the meeting as published in Inside Higher Ed. 
     
    Amelia Parnell, vice president for research and policy at NASPA; Robert Perez, grant manager at Every Learner Everywhere; and Maxine Roberts, assistant director of knowledge management for Strong Start to Finish, spoke at a plenary describing their networks’ approaches to advancing the fields of advising, digital learning and developmental education.

    The meeting closed with a plenary from AASCU’s Student Success team: Robin Ellis, Bao Le and Cameron Smither. They engaged attendees in a MythBusters-style game to share myths and strategies they uncovered about institutional transformation to student success. In a bittersweet moment, George Mehaffy, AASCU’s vice president for academic innovation and transformation, bid his final farewell as he begins his retirement. Teresa (Terry) Brown, former provost and vice president for academic affairs at the State University of New York at Fredonia, will take over the position on Sept. 23.