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UM President Donna Shalala Named to National Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences

University of Miami President Donna E. Shalala has been appointed to a national commission aimed at bolstering teaching and research in the humanities and social sciences, fields that are critical to culture, education, and America’s economic competitiveness.

As part of the new Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences, President Shalala will help recommend specific steps that government, schools and universities, cultural institutions, businesses, and philanthropies can take to support and strengthen these areas of knowledge.

Formed by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at the request of Congress, the commission will focus on education at the K-12 and higher education levels, as well as on other institutions critical to the humanities and social sciences, such as libraries and cultural institutions. In addition to the experience and expertise of the multidisciplinary group of commission members, the initiative also will draw on past research efforts and data from its Humanities Indicators.

Shalala will be joined on the 40-member commission by other prominent Americans from the humanities, the social sciences, the physical and life sciences, business, law, philanthropy, the arts, and the media. Among some of the notable members: producer, screenwriter, and director George Lucas; James McNerney, chairman, president, and CEO of Boeing Company; former Supreme Court Associate Justice David Souter; Charles M. Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineering; and the presidents of several prestigious universities, such as Drew Gilpin Faust (Harvard), Amy Gutmann (Penn), John L. Hennessy (Stanford), the Reverend John I. Jenkins (Notre Dame), and John Sexton (NYU).

Richard H. Brodhead, president of Duke University, and John W. Rowe, chairman and CEO of Exelon Corporation, will chair the commission.

“The American Academy, with its long record of stewardship and support for the humanities and social sciences, is well-suited to lead this effort,” said Academy President Leslie Berlowitz, who announced the initiative and will also serve on the commission. “Scholarship and education in these disciplines enable our citizens and our government to adapt to evolving circumstances at home and abroad. They are critical to our ability to compete in a global economy.”

The creation of the commission comes more than 30 years after the last comprehensive national assessment of the state of the humanities, the Rockefeller Commission, issued its 1980 report. The commission’s findings will serve as a companion to a forthcoming report of the National Academies on the future of the research university and ways to strengthen the American scientific enterprise.

The commission expects to complete its work over the next 18 to 24 months. More information about the initiative can be found at www.amacad.org.

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