Part 4: Membership In The AAU

What does membership in the prestigious AAU mean for Texas A&M?

Transcript

Kathryn Greenwade ’88, Vice President, The Association of Former Students: Over the past few months, our membership in the Association of American Universities has been referenced frequently. I'm not sure that everyone who views this video will be familiar with this group, so could you help us better understand more about the AAU and what membership in this prestigious group means for Texas A&M? Dr. Benedik, will you lead us in the discussion of this topic, please?


Michael Benedik, Speaker, Texas A&M Faculty Senate: Sure. Let me first give you a very brief history of what the AAU is. It began approximately 100 years ago with a small number of universities in the United States. It’s, first of all, called the American Association of Universities, and it has 59 universities in the U.S. and two universities in Canada—that’s the current membership. So, starting about 100 years ago, and the goal of that time was to make American universities equal to European universities because 100 years ago we were looked down upon. We did not have the same qualities as the top universities in the world. So their goal was to really raise the quality of higher education in America, and I think it’s pretty safe to say they succeeded phenomenally well because now U.S. universities are considered the top in the world. Unquestionably.

So that’s the history of the organization. It’s grown from about a dozen members when it started, to 61. That’s not a large growth. What it represents are the very top tier of excellent universities, the great universities in America. The selection criteria are really broad: undergraduate education, graduation education, professional education, research. So they evaluate, very carefully, all those different parameters of what a university does, and they invite members—membership’s only by invitation—to join. There have only been three universities to join in the last 10 years, and Texas A&M University has been one of those three. OK. So, it’s a really prestigious organization. It’s sort of like the equivalent of, let’s say, athletics playing in Division One.  It’s the same thing. This is the top tier. This is the group of universities that make a difference, that are playing, that are teaching, that are doing research at the very highest level, and they are recognized around the world as being that group. So it is the stamp of approval that we’re doing a great job. It’s an external stamp and one’s that done very seriously. You can’t buy your way in. You can’t politic your way in. It’s really done by a very strict set of standards. It’s a really prestigious group.

Now what it does for Texas A&M is it makes us recognizable. It’s a stamp of quality, so when faculty members go to a meeting and we’re presenting our work, people know that we’re at one of the top tier of universities even if they may not of heard about it, although they usually have. It really helps when we’re recruiting faculty. It really helps when faculty are trying to work together to apply for grant support externally. And it also really helps, I think, when we’re trying to attract those really top tier students, those National Honor Society Students and all those kinds of things.
So, I think, to sort of sum up, it’s really that stamp of approval that this is a great university. OK? To not be in it would say that we’ve given up our aspirations to be in the top 20 or the top 10. It would say that we’ve given up our aspirations to be in the top 50. OK? So it would be just unimaginable that we wouldn’t be in there.


Dr. Richard Box ’61, Chairman, The Texas A&M University System: Let me add to that, Kathryn, to what Michael said. It’s very important to the Board of Regents, too. We want to be sure that we maintain that status and maintain the membership in the AAU. We feel like this is extremely important for us.


Dr. R. Bowen Loftin ’71, President, Texas A&M University: Let me add some practical things as well. What both the chairman and Michael have said are very important reasons for us to want to be there and want to remain there. But there are very practical things day-by-day as well.  Within the AAU, there are many committees that work together. Jason Cook, for example, serves on a committee with people like himself at these universities who share common problems, and they can share then solutions that many one or two or three have worked out that can benefit the rest of us here. So this routine sharing of information occurs at all levels. Our provost sits on a committee of provosts from all these universities. I sit with the presidents. Jason sits with his peers. Michael O’Quinn, our governmental affairs person, does the same thing—and in particular, that’s an area of high value. AAU is headquartered in Washington DC for a reason. For a reason, not because we love the beltway, necessarily, because it’s a place where our government seat is for federal government. The federal government plays a major role in higher education. It’s important, both in research and other ways. The fact that we’re there, the fact, as was said, that we’re identifiable, means that, guess what? We are sought out by Congress, by the administration frequently for advice on policy, and so it’s often times the AAU president or presidents of AAU universities that sit in front of congressional committees offering testimonies about government policy. And it’s listened to. There are thousands of us in the United States. You can’t listen to them all at one time, so the government says, “Let’s pick out the very best and listen to them.” So we have a way to put our voice forward in a way almost no other group has in this country among higher-education intuitions, and that is a valuable research right there, to be able to be there at the table.

 Just two months ago, I was sitting there listening to a rep from the Office of Management and Budget, who is in charge of higher education funding for the administration. And he asked us questions and listened very carefully to our responses. That’s just one example of how we can influence this nation’s future in terms of where to invest dollars in research and in higher education directly, and that’s a huge value for us right now. So, again, just to recap, we have this ability to work together with our peers at these universities to learn best practices, to share, and we also have the ability to influence directly government policy in a positive way for Texas A&M and for us like Tex am. That to us is high value.


Jorge Bermudez ’73, 2011 Chair of the Board, The Association of Former Students: Excellence is one of our core values. We’ve achieved a level of excellence that’s been recognized by admission by the AAU. It’s unthinkable to me that we would lose that or not work toward maintaining that participation. So, again, I’m happy to hear that’s something that’s a goal of both the university and the regents. But, I will tell you, I think it’s not just useful in attracting professors or top students, but as students graduate from here, the Wall Street Journal recognizes us, I think, as one of the top two universities for recruiting. Companies who come here looking for students view that as being one of the marks of an excellent university. So, from a recruiting standpoint of our students, as well, once they graduate, it’s an extremely important factor that needs to be taken into account, and like I said, if we’ve already achieved that level of excellence that has allowed us to participate, it would be just unthinkable to lose that.