For many of our institutions, engagement with the external community is increasingly critical to their long term success. Accordingly, with the increased strategic emphasis within higher education on engagement and one of the foundations of CUMU, I am pleased to announce the Engagement Academy for University Leaders on June 22-26, 2009. Please share the information about this Academy with your leadership team and ask them to nominate someone at your institution to attend.

At the 2008 Engagement Academy urban and metropolitan universities were well represented and our Executive Editor of the Metropolitan Universities Journal Dr. Barbara Holland was one of the core faculty members.

The Academy is a five-day executive leadership experience to build your institutional capacity for engagement. Participants will focus on strategy development and implementation for engagement in the context of an institution’s overall strategic plan. Three associations of institutions (i.e., AASCU, CUMU, and NASULGC) have been working over the past two years with the host, Virginia Tech’s Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement (COTA), on the program development through a national program advisory committee, and they endorse the program.

The participants in the Academy will return to their campuses with the ability to:

• Advance the institution's strategic plan for engagement, including resource gathering
• Effectively link engagement to the instruction, research, and service missions
• Build institutional commitment involving faculty, students, and community partners
• Connect an effective engagement strategy with enhanced institutional development outcomes
• Develop and sustain university and community partnerships through engagement
• Evaluate and communicate the impact of engagement

The Academy will be held at The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center in Roanoke, Virginia. Tuition for the Academy will be $3,795, including five nights lodging and most meals. For more information go to: http://www.cota.vt.edu/ea. Participation in this leadership development experience is only available through your nomination. Nominations are due on December 12, 2008, either as a pdf attached to an email note or by print via mail/fax, but will be accepted continuously.

CUMU is pleased to support this academy with its emphasis on engagement as an institutional strategy and the priority to prepare leaders to advance engagement within our institutions across the country. We hope you share our enthusiasm by nominating a current or emerging leader of engagement with the electronic form at http://www.cota.vt.edu/ea. If you have any questions, please contact Jeri Childers, director of COTA at Virginia Tech (540-231-9982 or jlc@vt.edu).

For more information, visit: http://www.cota.vt.edu/ea

Contact:
Jeri Childers, Director
Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement
Virginia Tech
(540) 231-9497
jlc@vt.edu