UA Hosts Academic Officers of National Consortium

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A college career can be about exploration, about setting no limits other than one’s own. That spirit of innovation is showcased when The University of Alabama’s New College hosts the academic officers of the Consortium for Innovative Environments in Learning Nov. 6-8 in room 202 of Lloyd Hall.

CIEL is a national consortium of New College-like institutions. Their mission is to explore the nature, origins and sustainability of innovation in higher education and advocate for innovative, alternative practices.

“CIEL is an organization of institutions with similar missions and practices to New College,” said Dr. Natalie Adams, director of New College. “Our goal as a consortium is to be public advocates for innovative, alternative practices in higher education and to collaborate on projects that advance innovative, experimental learning opportunities.”

“The annual CIEL meeting brings together people from like-minded institutions to talk about how we, at our individual institutions, are continuously innovating and renewing our own practices and how we can, as a group, contribute to the national dialogue on higher education,” Adams said.

“Let’s face it. New College is unique on the UA campus,” Adams said, “and sometimes we aren’t quite sure if other colleges and departments truly ‘get’ what we do, so it’s refreshing for me, personally, to have the chance to sit down for two days and talk to deans, provosts, directors, and VPs of academic affairs who speak the same academic language as I do.”

Dr. Amy Laitinen, deputy director for Higher Education at the New America Foundation, will give a keynote address Nov. 7 at 6:30 p.m. at the University Club.

Laitinen previously served as a policy adviser to the undersecretary and assistant secretary for vocational and adult education at the U.S. Department of Education where she was responsible for developing policy and budget proposals for postsecondary and workforce education, including the $12-billion American Graduation Initiative and what became the state-focused “Race to the Top for College Affordability” proposal.

She also served as a policy adviser at the White House on community college issues and helped plan the White House Community College Summit.

Prior to joining New America, Laitinen served as a senior policy analyst at the non-partisan think tank Education Sector. The Chronicle of Higher Education named Laitinen as one of the top ten innovators of 2013 for her work on competency-based education.

Her current work focuses on federal policies to increase quality and transparency in higher education.

Laitinen is the product of public higher education, holding an associate degree from Miami-Dade Community College, a bachelor’s degree from New College of Florida, and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of California at Berkeley.

Other universities and colleges slated to attend the gathering include Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Bennington College, New College of Florida, Hampshire College, Rochester Institute of Technology, Fairhaven College, Evergreen State College, New Century College – George Mason, Daemen College and UA’s New College.

UA’s New College is part of the College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships, Truman Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.