ABOUT THE CONFERENCE
This convening of research university faculty, administrators, and professional staff, as well as officials from professional societies and funding agencies, will be the third such event sponsored by the Reinvention Center, established in 2000 as the only national organization to focus on undergraduate education at research universities. Like the Center’s two previous conferences, the 2006 conference will provide a stimulating forum for participants to investigate collectively ways that research universities can “take advantage of the immense resources of the[ir] research and graduate programs to strengthen the quality” of their undergraduate education (Boyer Commission, Reinventing Undergraduate Education, November, 2002). However, while the first two conferences focused primarily on the integration of these institutions’ research and teaching missions, the 2006 event broadens the purview to also encompass the research university’s other core functions, such as graduate education, community service, technological innovation, economic development, global enhancement and cultural advancement. Looking to the future, it will examine ways in which creative alliance of the undergraduate educational mission with other functions will increase a university’s capacity to offer an educational experience that is at the cutting edge and produces citizens prepared to respond to major intellectual, technological and social paradigm shifts that are occurring. In addition, these alliances may indirectly benefit undergraduate education by engendering a re-ordering of priorities within the research university as partners engage in the undergraduate mission.

In broadening the scope of the conversation on undergraduate education to encompass the university’s multiple priorities, the conference seeks not only to enrich undergraduate education at these institutions, but also to illuminate the benefits to be derived by all from a holistic view of the university. The driving interest is to stimulate the formation of productive partnerships that will lead to new modes of teaching and learning and will facilitate student development of broad cognitive skills, as well as competence in the rigors specific to academic disciplines. An additional priority is to further the dialog initiated at the Center’s 2004 conference on ways in which applications of research advances in learning and new technologies can enable research universities to transform their undergraduate education.

CONFERENCE GOALS

• To illuminate the connections undergraduate education has to the university’s other functions and investigate models that link undergraduate study with these functions, to the benefit of all.
• To stimulate faculty and administrators to provide leadership in forming productive partnerships.
• To further discussion on recent advances both in the science of learning and in instructional technology and their potential application in diverse educational settings.
• To enable research university members to share experiences and examine strategies and techniques that can be put into practice to maximize student learning.
• To provoke discussion of the implications such forces as the changing state of knowledge, increasing globalization, and the changing undergraduate population have for undergraduate education.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
The conference is directed at research university faculty, provosts, deans, chairs, and other administrators and professional staff with responsibility for aspects of undergraduate education. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are also invited to attend, as are colleagues from professional societies, accrediting bodies, businesses, and government, educational and funding organizations. Campuses are encouraged to bring institutional teams with individuals representing an array of units and responsibilities for delivering or assessing undergraduate education. Teams may include faculty in different disciplines, library faculty, administrators of undergraduate research, honors, and other special programs, individuals with pedagogical expertise, institutional research and planning professionals, graduate students, and others who provide leadership in undergraduate education.

MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS
The Marketplace of Ideas, a key aspect of the conference, provides a forum for conference participants to obtain information and see examples of colleagues' creative ideas and successful projects, learn about technological and pedagogical innovations, showcase their own and their students’ achievement.  Open throughout the conference, the Marketplace will feature displays and demonstrations of programs and activities ranging from curricular initiatives to software applications to examples of undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activity.  Materials may include posters, table displays, videos, computer-based presentations, and instructional tools. We invite campuses and companies to showcase their wares at the Marketplace.

This conference was generously supported by Stony Brook University and by the National Science Foundation (Award #0625360)