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USM Chancellor William Kirwan, Senior Vice Chancellor Irwin Goldstein Appointed to National Commission on University Accountability

ADELPHI, Md. (February 5, 2007) — William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland (USM), and Irwin L. Goldstein, senior vice chancellor of academic affairs for USM, will join 76 other administrators from public colleges and universities across the nation to develop recommendations for a voluntary system of accountability. The system is an initiative of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC).

“I speak for both Irv and myself when I say we are honored to join colleagues from around the nation on this worthy endeavor,” said Kirwan. “Over the past decade, there has been ever-growing demand from policymakers and the public alike to make higher education more accountable in demonstrable, easy-to-understand ways. A voluntary system of accountability is a step in the right direction. Ultimately, prospective students and their families will benefit from a system that is more transparent, standardized, and accessible as they go through the college selection process.”

Kirwan has been selected to chair the presidential advisory commission that will give guidance to the project’s task forces and work groups. Goldstein will serve as a member of the project’s core educational outcomes task force that will determine how colleges and universities can better develop useful and credible evidence to benchmark the value of higher education to students.

The voluntary system of accountability project responds to a call from the Commission on the Future of Higher Education (convened by U.S. Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings) for the nation’s colleges and universities to provide a clear and standardized system of information that “allows comparison among institutions regarding learning outcomes and other performance measures.”

With the help of a $267,900 grant from the Lumina Foundation for Education, the project’s task forces and technical work groups will meet during 2007 to develop detailed recommendations for a system that can be adopted and used by any public college or university.

For more information, visit http://www.aascu.org/accountability.

Contact: John Buettner
Phone: 301.445.2719
Email: jbuettner@usmd.edu

University System of Maryland
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Adelphi, MD 20783-1690, USA
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