The response has been solid for the upcoming visit by Dr. Christy Price who will be at LU on March 8 and 9 to deliver two powerful workshops designed to expand your teaching toolkit. Price was named 2010 Georgia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). In 2009, Price was named one of the top ten “Outstanding First-Year Student Advocates” nationwide by the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. The workshop on Thursday will be focused on influencing student motivation and their desire to learn. The Friday session will be focused on how you can build a learning environment that your students will not want to miss. Registration continues for both events. We are also encouraging everyone to take a look at her recent article The New "R"s for Engaging Millennial Learners. The Chronicle of Higher Education is offering a number of free webinars focused on improving the writing abilities of your students. This is an area that will receive some additional attention at LU in the coming months. You can get a jump start now by checking out the sessions. It is also a good opportunity to remind you that our Blackboard support includes the plagiarism-detection service SafeAssign. When someone receives a resume from a LU graduate in response to a job opening, what is it that you want that person to expect? What is the LU alumni profile? What are the ultimate learning outcomes we want all of our graduates to have when they receive their degree from LU? Those are the larger questions being pondered by the University's Core Curriculum Committee, composed of faculty elected by their peers to oversee the evaluation of the current core curriculum and recommend the new core to be implemented by 2014. Dr. Rebecca Boone is chairing this important committee. If you have comments or questions, you should contact your departmental representative. You might also want to take a look at the guidelines for this process being overseen by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The Collaborative Alliance for Post-secondary Success annual conference will be held June 8-10 in Seaside, CA. They have just extended the call for proposals and are looking for submissions by March 6 on the following topics: fostering habits of mind; high school to college transition programs (e.g., AP courses, developmental education, first- year seminars, Expository Reading and Writing Course and Early Assessment Programs, AVID, bridge and stretch programs); serving returning students, veterans, and students seeking workforce retraining; connecting multicultural and multilingual students to the learning community (e.g. Puente Project); using data in program design and assessment; engaging students by incorporating technology, collaborative learning, and high impact practices; collaborations within and across institutions; using assessment to guide our work; engaging students in assessment; sharing our stories to advocate for change in attitudes and policies; and, the Basic Skills Initiative.