Collaboration in a Changing World
April 11-12, 2010
Cary, North Carolina

The Atlantic Assessment Conference grew out of the NC State Undergraduate Assessment Symposium, which drew national and international audiences during its seven-year tenure. When NC State University decided not to renew the Symposium for 2010 due to budgetary restrictions, Meredith College collaborated with the Virginia Assessment Group, and the NC State University Offices of Undergraduate Academic Programs Assessment and Student Affairs Planning, Assessment, Research & Retention to carry on the tradition begun by the Symposium.

For more about the AAC and its partner organizations, please visit the links on the left.

Dr. Randy Swing
Randy L. Swing is the Executive Director of the Association for Institutional Research (AIR). AIR is a professional association of more than 4,200 institutional researchers, planners, and decision makers representing over 1,500 higher education institutions around the world.

Prior to joining AIR, Swing served as Co- Director & Senior Scholar at the Policy Center on the First Year of College and as a fellow in the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina. He has worked with numerous research teams in Japan, and served as an advisor to the Quality Assurance Agency of Scotland.

He has authored articles, chapters, monographs, and books, including Achieving and Sustaining Excellence in the First College Year (2006) and Proving and Improving: Tools and Techniques for Assessing the First College Year (2004). He is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on institutional change, assessment, retention, and undergraduate student success. He serves on the editorial/review boards for the Journal of General Education, The Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, and Innovative Higher Education.

For two decades prior to 1999, he held various leadership positions at Appalachian State University in assessment, advising, Upward Bound, and Freshman Seminar. He holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Georgia, MA and ED.S from Appalachian State University, and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of North Carolina - Charlotte. Randy began postsecondary education as a first-generation college student at Davidson County Community College in Lexington, NC.

Dr. Terrel Rhodes
Terrel Rhodes is currently Vice President of the Office of Quality, Curriculum and Assessment at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) where he focuses on the quality of undergraduate education, access, general education, and assessment of student learning. He is also director of the annual AAC&U General Education Institute.

Rhodes received his B.A. from Indiana University at Bloomington and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before moving into national higher education work, he was a faculty member for twenty-five years. He brings to his new position many years of experience leading undergraduate curriculum development efforts, teaching public policy at the graduate and undergraduate levels, developing learning outcomes assessment plans, and forging inter-institutional collaborations with community colleges and high schools.

Rhodes has published extensively on both undergraduate education reform issues and in his academic field of public policy and administration. His many books and articles cover such issues as integrative learning, e-portfolios, high school-college connections, and public policies affecting urban American Indian communities. He is chair of the Ethics Section of the American Society for Public Administration. Rhodes has been an educational consultant and outside evaluator at numerous colleges and universities, with a special interest in curriculum development and assessment of student learning outcomes, and has served as a reviewer and outside evaluator for the U.S. Department of Education.