Associated Colleges of the South

Virtual Workshop - Developing Recruitment Strategies While Navigating the Anti-DEI Crusade
2025-08-04 11:00 - 12:00 (America/New_York)
Workshop Facilitators: Nicole Fratto Garcia (Trinity) & Marlene Arellano (Davidson)

Join us for an informative virtual workshop that offers strategies for how your institutions can preserve, strengthen, and advocate for your fly-in programs while highlighting less cost-prohibitive alternatives. Participants will leave with a toolkit of best practices, strategies, and insights that can be immediately implemented within their institutions to enhance their diversity and recruitment efforts through fly-in programs and other alternatives.

Click here for more information.

Virtual Workshop - Prompting Success with Generative AI in Teaching and Student Research
2025-08-13 10:00 - 12:30
Workshop Facilitators: Renée Jordan (Morehouse), Celeste N. Lee (Spelman), Natasha K. McClendon (Spelman), Ryan Cales (Richmond) & Andrew Bell (Richmond)

Join us for a dynamic, hands-on workshop designed to equip ACS faculty with the tools, strategies, and confidence to use generative AI to support student success. This 2.5-hour session blends two key approaches: using AI to enhance teaching through prompt engineering and integrating AI intentionally into the student research and writing process. Participants will explore how to personalize learning, support diverse student needs, and foster deeper critical thinking, as well as how to scaffold research assignments and build AI literacy.Faculty will leave with practical tools, sample materials, and a clear framework for aligning AI use with course outcomes. This solutions-focused session emphasizes clarity, intention, and equity in AI-integrated learning.

Please come prepared with access to a generative AI platform (e.g., ChatGPT or Gemini). Note: This workshop is centered on student learning and empowerment—not on academic misconduct or detection tools.

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Book Chat - Could I Stay or Should I Go? Career Development and Belonging for International Students in the Current American Zeitgeist
2025-08-19 12:00 - 13:00
Book Chat Facilitator: Mohammed Forero Bucheli (Rollins College)

How can liberal arts colleges more effectively support international students’ career development in an era of shifting immigration policies and political uncertainty?This book chat, inspired by The Good Immigrant (edited by Nikesh Shukla & Chimene Suleyman), brings together reflections from a summer ACS reading group that explored how advising structures can evolve to be more inclusive, human-centered, and justice-oriented. The anthology served as a catalyst for conversations about belonging, immigration, and the often-overlooked barriers international students face when navigating life after graduation.

Join us for a cross-campus conversation that will spotlight new ideas and concrete strategies for building more responsive, globally-minded advising practices. Participants will share emerging insights and a collective reflection document designed to spark ongoing dialogue and institutional action across ACS campuses.

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The Effective Department Chair – Program Session
2025-09-02 09:00 - 10:15, 2025-10-07 09:00 - 10:15, 2025-11-04 09:00 - 10:15, 2025-12-02 09:00 - 10:15, 2026-01-06 09:00 - 10:15, 2026-02-03 09:00 - 10:15
The ACS Effective Department Chair program offers a supportive and practical professional development experience grounded in community, mentoring, and real-world leadership challenges.

This program is designed to help department chairs thrive – not just survive – in their roles.

If you would like more information, please contact Shiree Williams, ACS – swilliams@acsouth.edu

Book Chat - Pedagogy of Kindness by Cate Denial
2025-09-12 11:00 - 12:00
Book Chat Facilitator: Nisha Gupta (Centre College)

Join us for a thoughtful conversation exploring Pedagogy of Kindness by Cate Denial—a timely and compassionate framework for reimagining our teaching in the face of rising plagiarism, student disengagement, mental health concerns, and the evolving landscape of inclusive education. Denial invites us to center kindness not as self-sacrifice, but as a belief in our students’ agency and humanity: “It is about believing my students.”

Members of the ACS summer reading group will reflect on their experience with the book, share practical takeaways, and offer recommendations for applying equitable, student-centered, and sustainable pedagogies. Whether you’ve read the book or are simply curious about its themes, all are welcome to this informal, lunchtime discussion designed to inspire connection, care, and renewal in our teaching practices.

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Fall 2025 ACS CAO Meeting
2025-09-25 16:00 - 2025-09-26 20:00
Draft agenda and registration link will be shared in July of 2025.

If you would like more information on this event, please contact Ashley Torgerson at atorgerson@acsouth.edu.

Mid-career Advancement Pathways Program - Core Workshop
2025-10-03 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-10-24 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-11-14 14:00 - 16:00, 2026-01-16 14:00 - 16:00, 2026-02-20 14:00 - 16:00
The Mid-career Advancement Pathways Program (MAPP) is designed to help mid-career faculty thrive by developing meaningful goals, plans, and relationships. MAPP is a program for faculty across ACS campuses.

If you would like more information, please contact Shiree Williams, ACS – swilliams@acsouth.edu

Virtual Workshop - PLAI-ing with CLAAI: Critical (and Fun!) Innovation
2025-10-24 09:30 - 10:30
Workshop Facilitators: JT Torres (Washington & Lee) & Lauren Craig Tilton (Richmond)

Join us for an interactive virtual workshop that blends two powerful lenses on artificial intelligence in higher education. Through the PLAI approach, we’ll play with AI tools in low-stakes, creative ways that spark curiosity and reflection. At the same time, CLAAI offers a critical liberal arts perspective that invites us to interrogate AI’s social, ethical, and institutional impacts—asking what’s at stake for students, faculty, and the future of knowledge. Together, we’ll explore how to stay curious, skeptical, and empowered as educators in an AI-infused academic world. No prior experience with AI tools is required, just an openness to experimentation, uncertainty, and adaptation.

Click here for more information.

2025 VP of Student Life & Dean of Students Meeting
2025-11-13 14:00 - 2025-11-14 15:30
Draft agenda and registration link will be shared in August of 2025. If you would like more information on this event, please contact Ashley Torgerson at atorgerson@acsouth.edu.

ACS Spring 2026 CAO Meeting
2026-02-10 16:00 - 2026-02-12 20:00
We will begin at 4:00pm on Tuesday, February 10th and conclude after dinner on Thursday, February 12th.

If you would like more information on this event, please contact Ashley Torgerson at atorgerson@acsouth.edu.

ACS Workshop: Why Liberal Arts in the Age of AI?
2026-02-19 14:00 - 15:30
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the foundations of education, and liberal arts colleges have a unique opportunity to lead this transformation. Join colleagues across the ACS to explore the role and unique strengths of a liberal arts education in the age of AI. Through workshop-style discussion, we’ll surface the shared values that define our institutions and develop language that communicates our distinctive value to key stakeholders. The session is designed to generate input on a White Paper under development by the CLAAI ACS Fellows, “Why Liberal Arts in the Age of AI?”, which will both articulate our shared values and make a compelling case for liberal arts education in this transformative moment for higher education. Click here to register.

ACS 2026 CFO Meeting
2026-03-25 16:00 - 2026-03-27 17:00
We will begin with dinner on Wednesday, March 25th and conclude by noon on Friday, March 27th.

If you would like more information on this event, please contact Ashley Torgerson at atorgerson@acsouth.edu.

ACS Teaching and Learning Workshop
2026-06-01 08:00 - 2026-06-05 17:00
The Summer Teaching Workshop is a unique annual professional development opportunity for faculty of ACS member institutions at all career stages. It is a challenging and invigorating experience for faculty wanting to strengthen teaching performance, expand teaching techniques and explore pedagogical issues.

If you would like to learn more about the program, please click here.

Registration for this experience requires that a faculty member be nominated by their Chief Academic Officer. Please contact your CAO’s office.

Location: Rollins College, Winter Park, FL

June 2026 ACS Board of Directors Meeting
2026-06-03 12:00 - 2026-06-04 13:00
The June 2026 ACS Board Meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 3rd, and Thursday, June 4th. We will begin with lunch at noon on Wednesday and conclude after lunch at 1pm on Thursday. If you would like more information on this event, please contact Ashley Torgerson at atorgerson@acsouth.edu.

Course Design Institute: Taking the Leap into Specifications Grading
2026-06-09 09:00 - 2026-06-12 12:15
In Grading for Growth (2023), Clark and Talbert ask, “What if there was a way to think about grades built on growth over game-playing, learning over letters and numbers, and productive relationships over adversarial ones? What if we could address, if not entirely repair, so many of these problems, through a quiet revolution in the everyday task of grading?” (3).

This course design institute takes up that question by exploring one alternative grading approach–specifications grading–which, like other alternate grading systems, can create more inclusive and equitable learning experiences for students by mitigating some negative outcomes associated with traditional grading (see for example: Covington et al., 2017; Feldman, 2019; Kohn, 2011; Malouff & Thorsteinsson, 2016).

Click here to register.

ACS Workshop: Building Meaningful First‑Year Experiences – A Consortium Conversation
2026-06-16 10:00 - 12:00
Join colleagues from across the Associated Colleges of the South for a virtual workshop led by Dr. Michelle Hite, Ph.D. of Spelman College, as part of ACS’s participation in the Teagle Foundation’s Cornerstone initiative. Designed for faculty who teach first‑year courses as well as curriculum leaders and FYE program staff, this session will offer a collaborative space to explore how ACS campuses structure their first‑year experience, including approaches to centering the humanities, launching general education pathways, and incorporating common texts to build a shared student experience. Participants will engage with examples from peer institutions, reflect on their own campus models, and explore opportunities for innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration amidst our changing environment. The workshop will also outline potential next steps for campuses interested in considering a Teagle planning or implementation grant to support ongoing efforts.

Click here to register.

ACS Workshop: Telling Your Own Story of Success - Rethinking Assessment in Centers for Teaching and Learning
2026-06-17 14:00 - 15:15
Most Centers for Teaching and Learning track attendance—but we know that simply “showing up” does not directly equate with meaningful engagement or learning. If we encourage faculty to assess based on learning objectives and active participation, shouldn’t our centers do the same?

This interactive session explores how CTLs can move beyond headcounts toward an intentional, mission-aligned assessment framework. Drawing on the concept of an assessment repository to support academic programs, we’ll consider how these tools can also help centers clarify their purpose, measure what truly matters, and tell a compelling story of impact. Participants will leave with practical strategies for developing an assessment compass that reflects their center’s values and demonstrates its institutional contribution.

Click here to register.

2026 Academic Leadership Fellows Summer Institute
2026-07-20 17:30 - 2026-07-23 12:00
More information to come.

ACS Fall 2026 CAO Meeting
2026-10-01 12:00 - 2026-10-02 17:00
