News from the President

Our jointly sponsored spring meeting with NABE was wildly successful-one of the best economic policy conferences ever. Bruce Kellison and his committee did a superb job in developing three informative sessions that were of special interest to AUBERites-one session on fiscal stress in states, another on offshore outsourcing, and one on BLS employment measures and wage statistics. Additional sessions were presented on current topics, such as social security, corporate governance, health costs, trade policies, and much more. For those who are not NABE members (and you should seriously consider becoming one), you can read summaries of all sessions and access PowerPoint and other materials using a special guest account provided by NABE (check your e-mail for more details).

After reviewing and discussing results of our recent survey, the AUBER board voted unanimously to continue to partner with NABE for next year's spring meeting. It also was decided that we should continue to cultivate partnerships with other organizations throughout the year that add value for AUBER members. Analysis of the survey results and a summary of the discussion are available on page 11 in this newsletter. Many thanks to Bruce and his committee for their analysis of this issue.

Plans for another AUBER "fall meeting to remember" are advancing rapidly. Janet Speyrer and Rennae Daneshvary are assembling a dynamite program, which you can read about in more detail in this newsletter. (Keep up to date on the latest program developments by accessing AUBER.org.) It is imperative that you contact Janet or Rennae as soon as possible if you would like to be on the program. Please consider participating in the poster session, a new idea introduced last year with great success by Maureen Dunne and Lee Reynis.

AUBER.org (http://www.AUBER.org) continues to develop into a major communications vehicle for the organization. If you haven't visited in the past week or so, I guarantee that you'll find something new and useful. Nicole Gislason and her team at the University of West Florida are adding content and new features daily. Be sure to check out the new events calendar, a compilation of events of common interest to AUBER researchers.

David Billings offers some important tips for unit directors concerning relationships with your college and university in his column, "A Dean's Perspective . . . " Da'vid is dean at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and author of AACSB's new standards for accreditation.

Finally, as denizens of economic truth, keep those data flowing! Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.

Marshall J. Vest
The University of Arizona

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