Pacific Lutheran students relax before the beginning of classes.

ANAC Surveys Senior Faculty on Late Career and Retirement Issues; ANAC Members Report Strong Fall Enrollments, Stand Out in US News College Rankings and in College Rankings Exposed

Faculty members and administrators with faculty appointments age 50 and over at ANAC member colleges and universities have been invited to complete a comprehensive survey of perceptions and plans regarding the late faculty career and retirement. The survey seeks views on issues ranging from work patterns, priorities and incentives to professional development goals, institutional relationships, and aspirations for retirement. Survey results will be used to assist faculty and their institutions to work together, as more than 50 percent of the professoriate is expected to retire in the next few years, and to make faculty views known as colleges and universities grapple with late career and retirement issues. Preliminary survey results will be available early in 2004.

Continuing a pattern of the past several years, ANAC members report enrollment increases with the beginning of Fall classes. Members such as Belmont and Elon universities and Rollins College are experiencing their largest enrollments in history and The Sage Colleges and Valparaiso University report that enrollments are the largest in more than a decade. Keeping pace with their robust enrollments, the US News and World Report most recent "Best Colleges" issue named fifteen ANAC members in the top 15 of the "Best Universities-Master's" ratings category, headed by Valparaiso and Rollins, ranked second in the Midwest and South, respectively.

Running counter to the "reputation=quality" equation media rankings promote, three ANAC member presidents feature prominently in a new book by Paul Boyer, College Rankings Exposed: the Art of Getting a Quality Education in the 21st Century, published by Peterson's with a foreword by Carol Schneider, President of AACU. Boyer, son of the late Ernest L. Boyer, former president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and founding inspiration for ANAC, argues that media rankings have contributed to a fierce prestige competition that obscures the attributes of a good education and the many institutions that provide it. According to Boyer, the challenge in selecting a college is one of finding the "right fit," a phrase on whose meaning presidents Alan Harre of Valparaiso University, Bobby Fong of Butler University, and Loren Anderson of Pacific Lutheran University comment thoughtfully throughout the book. The book also contains examples of good practice on ANAC member campuses such as Belmont and Elon universities.

Mercer University students surround sculpture of founder Jesse Mercer.

Articles In This Issue:

In the Headlines

• ANAC Senior Survey Probes Late Career Perceptions and Retirement Plans
• ANAC Members Highly Regarded in US News Rankings
• Round-up of ANAC Member Fall Enrollments
  

ANAC Projects and Activities

• ANAC Study Abroad Program Inventory for January 21, 2004 Meeting
• ANAC Summer Institute 2004, June 16-19, Hampton University
• Status Report on ANAC Academy Program Development
  
• ANAC Data Exchange Observes Five Years

ANAC Members in the News

• Belmont University Opens $52 Million Arena, Atrium, and Student Life Complex
• Hampton University Opens College of Virginia Beach
  
• Hamline University Announces $7 Million Gift for Stadium/Classrooms
  
• Drake University and Simmons College Receive Workplace Awards
  
• Elon University Receives $1 Million to Endow Spiritual Life Programs
  
• North Central College Pictorial History
  
• Hamline Creates "Education Evolving" Project
  
• Drury University "Creativity, Exploration and Discovery" Convocation Series
  
• Elon University Poll Mirrors National Concerns
  
• Hamline College of Law Receives Three-Year US-European Community Grant
  

Faculty, Staff, and Student Activities, Awards, Appointments, and Transitions

• ANAC Member Presidents Honored
  
• Susquehanna and Drury Faculty Members Gain Recognition
  
• Drury SIFE Team Wins World Cup
  
• Valparaiso Students Place First in Indiana Accounting Competition
  
• Senior-level Administrative Appointments at Hampton, Redlands, and Susquehanna

ANAC Commentary

• Presidents Address New Students to Begin a New Academic Year
• Review of John Bennett's New Book: Academic Life: Hospitality, Ethics, and Spirituality (Anker Press, 2003)
  
• Simmons Addresses "Crazy Myths about Women's Colleges"

Calendar of Upcoming Events

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