Report from the President

REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT The year 1977-78 has been one of a high degree of activity for the Asso­ ciation. This is a report on the activities and should provide a basis for discussion at the annual meeting. A financial statement for the year will be examined by the Board of Di­ rectors at its March meeting and presented to the membership at that time. You may be assured that the financial condition of the Association is sound, since we received a $5,000 grant from Exxon in the spring of 1977. That grant was in support of general membership and Association activities and has been instrumental in allowing the board to have an extra meeting and in the launching of the Higher Education Review. The membership of the Association now stands at approximately 465 dues paying members. We have another 30 or 40 who have yet to renew their member­ ship. This is an increase of 100 to 150 in one year. A membership commit­ tee, co-chaired by Mary Kinnane and me, developed a membership brochure and conducted a membership campaign by mail. The ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education, with the aid of its director, Jon Fife, and one of his staff, Marilyn Shorr, was instrumental in preparing a mailing list of approximately 2300 people who have an interest in the study of postsecondary education. All of those people received invitations to join ASHE. In addition, all the chairpeople of programs in higher education received multiple copies of the membership brochure to distribute to graduate students. Since the mailing to program heads did not take place until November, we expect the returns from the graduate students to swell our membership to 500 plus by convention time. In addition, the ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education prepared a list of programs in higher education and a list of individuals who have interest in postsecondary education. That list was distributed to all ASHE members in January. A mailing list of ASHE members will be available at the annual con­ vent ion. Perhaps the most important decision facing the Association board when it meets in March and again in May is the selection of a successor to SecretaryTreasurer Bill Carr. Elsewhere in the Review, the job of Secretary-Treasurer is described in some detail and nominations are being solicited. I urge each member of ASHE to carefully consider whether his or her institution and/or program could consider becoming the Secretary-Treasurer of the Association. Bill Carr has fulfilled that role with distinction for the last three to four years, and it is important that the job be filled by a person equally commit­ ted to the Association. The Board decided at its May 1977 Meeting to expand the ASHE Newsletter into a journal format. Under the able leadership of Sam Kellams, of the Uni­ versity of Virginia, the Higher Education Review published its first edition in the fall. It is intended that the Review will be published three times a year with articles, review essays, and other items which are relevant to the purposes of the Association. I want to express my personal appreciation to Sam Kellams for his excellent work on this journal. I fully believe it will make a significant contribution to the development of the profession. During the last year, I have served as ASHE's representative on the Coa­ lition for Postsecondary Research Organizations. The Coalition has met sev­ eral times in Washington and its steering committee is composed of represen­ tatives of a number of national associations including the American Council on Education, the Education Commission of the States, NCHEMS, Marv Peterson representing the University-based Centers of Higher Education, Ken Toilet, and Pam Christoffel. The Coalition has commissioned ten task forces to pre­ pare background papers on needed research on such important areas as faculty development, governance and state level policy, curriculum and learning, man­ agement, and minority affairs. The steering committee will consider these papers sometime in February and March and determine what form their dissemi­ nation might take. 2 A number of the activities that were previously performed by the Associ­ ation for professors of higher education have been resumed by ASHE...