his meeting of research university faculty, administrators, and professional staff, as well as officials from professional societies and funding agencies, will be the fourth major conference sponsored by the Reinvention Center, a national consortium of research universities established in 2000 and inspired by the Boyer Commission report, Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America's Universities (1998). The timing coincides with the 10th anniversary of the publication of the report, which, perhaps more than any other document, called attention to undergraduate education at research universities. The Boyer Commission report was noteworthy in that it distinguished the educational potential of these institutions from that of liberal arts colleges and challenged them to "reinvent" the undergraduate education they offer so that it emphasizes inquiry, investigation, and discovery and takes full advantage of their unique research cultures, values, and resources. The recommendations it offered stimulated and have given direction to many of the reforms in undergraduate education that have been implemented at research universities in the past ten years.

This conference provides a unique opportunity for research universities to take stock of the reforms and advances in undergraduate education that have taken place in the past decade, to highlight approaches and practices that have produced significant results, and to build on these experiences to further the "reinventing" process. The overarching goal is to continue the process of determining how the research university environment of discovery and creativity can shape and add distinctive value to undergraduate education and to use the knowledge gained to improve curricular and pedagogical practices.

The conference will consist of four plenary and accompanying breakout sessions that address topics identified as high priorities by Reinvention Center constituents: General education; diversity and internationalism; assessment and accountability; and constructing an undergraduate education that connects the research university's core missions of generating and transmitting knowledge with the national need for a robust workforce that can compete in a global economy. Participants in the breakout sessions will report on exemplary models, deliberate on strategies for addressing major challenges, and gain knowledge that they can bring to their own teaching situations and to larger institutional efforts to improve undergraduate education.

he Reinvention Center, located at the University of Miami, is a member-driven consortium of research universities committed to implementing an undergraduate education that builds on these institutions' unique assets and culture and serves their large, heterogeneous student populations. The Center facilitates their efforts by serving as both a resource and an active and informed leader in promoting change. In the eight years since it was founded, the Center has created regional and national forums for the discussion of educational issues, conducted and published surveys and studies of "best practices," provided resources through print and Web materials, and created successful networks of faculty, administrators and educational professionals. It has also strengthened the national dialogue on undergraduate education through a series of biennial national conferences. To date, the conferences and network meetings have attracted 1,615 faculty, administrators, professional staff, and graduate students from 102 public and private institutions, along with officials from major funding agencies and professional organizations.

In 2007, the Reinvention Center relocated from Stony Brook University, where it originated, to the University of Miami and transformed into a membership organization. In reply to a single membership solicitation, 65 universities, half of which are AAU members, have joined. This powerful and immediate response indicates the importance research universities attach to the Center's work and its potential to effect fundamental educational and cultural change at these distinctive institutions. The 2008 conference will build on this momentum and enable the Center to continue to move forward by advancing and enlarging the scope of the conversation, expanding the Center's capacity to serve as a resource, generating new studies and experimental projects that involve several campuses, and attracting new constituents.