The
American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) is a conservative non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to support liberal arts education, uphold high academic standards, safeguard the free exchange of ideas on campus". It is based in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
and its current president is
Anne D. NealAnne deHayden Neal is the president of the conservative non-profit organization American Council of Trustees and Alumni .Ms. Neal spent her childhood in Indiana, where her father was the editor of the small-town newspaper, the Noblesville Daily Ledger. She graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa...
.
ACTA was founded in 1995 as the National Alumni Forum by former
National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
chairman Lynne V. Cheney, former University of Colorado president and U.S.
The
American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) is a conservative non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to support liberal arts education, uphold high academic standards, safeguard the free exchange of ideas on campus". It is based in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
and its current president is
Anne D. NealAnne deHayden Neal is the president of the conservative non-profit organization American Council of Trustees and Alumni .Ms. Neal spent her childhood in Indiana, where her father was the editor of the small-town newspaper, the Noblesville Daily Ledger. She graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa...
.
ACTA was founded in 1995 as the National Alumni Forum by former
National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
chairman Lynne V. Cheney, former University of Colorado president and U.S. Senator
Hank BrownGeorge Hanks "Hank" Brown is a former Republican politician and Senator from Colorado who served as president of the University of Colorado system from April 2005 - January 2008.-Education:...
, sociologist
David RiesmanDavid Riesman , was a United States sociologist, attorney, and educator....
, Nobel Laureate
Saul BellowSaul Bellow was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts...
, and others. The seed money had been provided by the
Bradley FoundationThe Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a conservative foundation with about half a billion US dollars in assets. According to the Bradley Foundation 1998 Annual Report, it gives away more than $30 million per year...
and
John M. Olin FoundationJohn M. Olin Foundation was a grant-making foundation established in 1953 by John M. Olin, president of the Olin Industries chemical and munitions manufacturing businesses. Unlike most non-profit foundations, the John M. Olin Foundation was charged to spend all of its assets within a generation of...
.
Jerry L. MartinJerry L. Martin is chairman of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. He served as president of ACTA from its founding in 1995 as the National Alumni Forum until 2003, when he was succeeded by Anne D. Neal...
was president from the founding until 2003 when Neal took over.
ACTA’s stated goals are to promote academic freedom, academic excellence, and accountability in higher education. It does so primarily by calling on trustees to ensure that their universities offer a high-quality education at an affordable price. ACTA argues for a strong core curriculum, high academic standards and classes in which students are exposed to a broad range of ideas.
ACTA promotes the Core Curriculum view of liberal education, which was common in American colleges through the 1960s and remained at some universities as late as 1999. According to ACTA, a university education should prepare its graduates to become “informed citizens, effective workers, and lifelong learners.” ACTA believes this requires a strong core curriculum. It recommends the following seven requirements: Writing or Composition, Literature, Foreign Language, American Government or History, Economics, Mathematics, Natural or Physical Science. ACTA’s 50-college study found that nearly half of the institutions surveyed require two or fewer of these core subjects. A quarter require one or none.
ACTA is best known for its November, 2001, report
Defending Civilization: how our universities are failing America and what can be done about it, which was published in the wake of September 11 attacks. The report met with wide criticism and accusations of neo-McCarthyism, because it served as a broadside against "liberal academia" that the report authors saw as being "soft" on international terrorism. The report cited 117 statements by college administrators, faculty and students across the country that ACTA found insufficiently patriotic. ACTA defended its position by claiming that the report was not intended for blacklisting anyone and that it was published with the goal of fostering free exchange of ideas. Following a barrage of criticism, ACTA published a "revised and expanded" version of the report in February 2002. (Neither version is any longer available from ACTA, but they can be easily found through internet search.)
Losing America’s Memory is another widely circulated and cited ACTA report on alleged history illiteracy among college students. The report found that none of the top 55 liberal arts colleges and universities surveyed include American history as a graduation requirement. The report also found that while students can easily identify pop culture icons, 65% of those surveyed failed the 34 question multiple-choice test on American history and government. Like many other ACTA reports,
Losing America's Memory has been criticized for questionable methodology and lack of historical basis for comparing results . Some authors cite similar studies earlier in the twentieth century producing nearly identical results, contradicting ACTA's conclusions of a decline in history literacy among college students .
ACTA publishes other reports on various aspects of higher education, as well as guides to advise trustees, alumni, donors and policymakers. In 2005, ACTA began publishing report cards on state public universities. Like other "report cards" on the state of public education, ACTA's findings remain highly controversial .
Each year, ACTA gives out
the Philip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to Liberal Arts EducationThe Philip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to Liberal Arts Education is an annual prize given by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni to an individual who has “made an extraordinary contribution to the advancement of liberal arts education, core curricula, and the teaching of...
. This award “honors individuals who advance liberal arts education, core curricula, and the teaching of Western civilization and American history.” In 2008,
Donald KaganDonald Kagan is an American historian at Yale specializing in ancient Greece, notable for his four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War. He was Dean of Yale College from 1989–1992. He formerly taught in the Department of History at Cornell University...
, Sterling Professor of History and Classics at Yale University, received the award.
ACTA is closely associated with other conservative institutions, especially,
Intercollegiate Studies InstituteThe Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Inc., or ', is a non-profit educational organization founded in 1953 as the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists...
(ISI),
National Association of ScholarsThe National Association of Scholars is a non-profit organization in the United States that opposes multiculturalism and affirmative action and seeks to counter what it considers a "liberal bias" in academia...
(NAS), the
Federalist SocietyThe Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, most frequently called simply the Federalist Society, is an organization of conservatives and libertarians seeking reform of the current American legal system in accordance with an originalist interpretation of the Constitution...
and the
Heritage FoundationThe Heritage Foundation is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C.The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership. Heritage has since continued to...
, with whom it has significantly overlapping membership and governance .
Reports
State Report Cards
- Show Me: A Report Card on Public Higher Education in Missouri (2008)
- Shining the Light: A Report Card on Georgia’s System of Public Higher Education (2008)
- Governance in the Public Interest: A Case Study of the University of North Carolina System (2005)
Core Curriculum
- The Hollow Core: Failure of the General Education Curriculum (2004)
American History/Government
- Restoring America's Legacy (2002)
- Losing America's Memory: Historical Illiteracy in the 21st Century (2000)
Shakespeare
- The Vanishing Shakespeare (2007)
- The Shakespeare File: What English Majors Are Really Studying (1996)
Intellectual Diversity and Academic Freedom
- How many Ward Churchills? (2006)
- Intellectual Diversity: Time for Action (2005)
- Politics in the Classroom (2004)
- Defending Civilization: How our Universities are Failing American and What Can be Done about it (2002)
Grade Inflation
- Degraded Currency: The Problem of Grade Inflation (2003)
Accreditation
- Can College Accreditation Live Up to Its Promise? (2002)
Trustee Guides
- The Spellings Commission and You: What Higher Education Trustees Can Do in Light of the Department of Education's Recent Report (2007)
- Assessing the President's Performance: A "How To" Guide for Trustees (2006)
- Strategic Planning : And Trustee Responsibility (2005)
- Selecting a New President: What to do Before You Hire a Search Firm (2004)
- Becoming an Educated Person: Toward a Core Curriculum for College Students (2003)
- Teachers Who Can: How Informed Trustees Can Ensure Teacher Quality (2003)
- Educating Teachers: The Best Minds Speak Out (2002)
- The Basics of Responsible Trusteeship (2002)
Guides for Policymakers
- The Spellings Commission and You: What State Policymakers Can Do in Light of the Department of Education's Recent Report (2007)
- Why Accreditation Doesn't Work and What Policymakers Can Do About It (2007)
- Accountability in Higher Education: Governors Provide Leadership (2004)
- Any State Can! A Model for Improving Higher Education: The Colorado Example (2004)
- We the People: A Resource Guide to Promoting Historical Literacy for Governors, Legislators, Teachers and Citizens (2003)
Board of Directors
- Chairman: Jerry L. Martin
Jerry L. Martin is chairman of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. He served as president of ACTA from its founding in 1995 as the National Alumni Forum until 2003, when he was succeeded by Anne D. Neal...
- Treasurer: Robert T. Lewit, M.D.
- Secretary: John D. Fonte
- Stephen H. Balch
- Edward F. Cox
Edward Ridley Finch Cox , is a lawyer who is best known as the son-in-law of the late President Richard M. Nixon. Cox is a lawyer in the Manhattan law firm of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP where he has served as the Chairman of the Corporate Department and a member of the Management Committee...
- Lee E. Goodman
- Edwin Meese III
- Anne D. Neal
Anne deHayden Neal is the president of the conservative non-profit organization American Council of Trustees and Alumni .Ms. Neal spent her childhood in Indiana, where her father was the editor of the small-town newspaper, the Noblesville Daily Ledger. She graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa...