Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility: Thoughts from a National Conference

I’ll be attending this national conference on Friday and Saturday this week, and am pretty excited to tell you about the interesting things I’m sure to discover there.

The conference in downtown Minneapolis is “Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility: Deepening Student and Campus Commitments.” It’s sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

I’m pretty excited about the subject matter, and there are many interesting session topics -- ranging from service learning and community engagement as part of the curriculum, and motivating students toward responsibility, to creating a culture change among students and faculty. Maybe most interesting of all the topics, for me, might be the sessions about how we can assess the changes and programs we create on campus about personal and social responsibility.

Faculty and staff members from Minnesota are presenting, too: from Winona State University, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Hamline University, Augsburg College, Macalester College, Concordia University, and the University of Minnesota.

Stay tuned over the next few days as I tell you my thoughts about this important topic!