Posts Tagged: ACE at 100
Achieving equitable access to college for communities of color and recognizing and protecting institutional autonomy and freedom to construct a diverse campus that generates educational benefits for its students have been critical goals for ACE throughout its history.
In 2007, ACE created the Severely Injured Military Veterans: Fulfilling Their Dreams program in response to a request from James Wright, then president of Dartmouth, and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for academic advising for over 700 severely injured service members.
In 2005, a North Carolina high school hosted an event called College Application Day, with the goal of having every senior complete and submit at least one college application. The program soon spread statewide, reaching underserved students and by 2011, ACE President Molly Corbett Broad advocated scaling the program nationwide.
In 1992, ACE, along with five sponsoring associations, entered into a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. State Department to engage higher education in worldwide development issue known as Higher Education for Development, or HED.
Throughout its history, ACE has worked to support the inclusion of women in all aspects of higher education. From advocating women’s right to work in the 1920s to creating a pipeline to higher education leadership positions in recent years, ACE has spearheaded a number of initiatives focused on women and their success.
ACE has played a key role in responding to the educational needs of military members and veterans, perhaps most significantly by working closely with the federal government on two GI Bills—the original implemented after World War II, and an updated version in the aftermath of 9/11.
In 1993, ACE approached Jacob Lawrence to use his work, University, to commemorate our 75th anniversary. To continue this tradition of recognizing historic milestones through art, ACE commissioned a sculpture last year in honor of our 100th anniversary, from artist Therman Statom. Statom works primarily in glass out of his studio in Omaha, Nebraska, and has deep roots in the support of education at all levels.
Most people have heard of the GED, but many might not know that it was created by ACE in 1942, after the United States Armed Forces Institute approached ACE with a request to develop tests to measure high school-level academic skills.
Helping more Americans gain access to and graduate from college has been a large part of ACE’s mission ever since the Council was formed in 1918 to help soldiers returning from World War I gain a college degree. And it continues to play a central role today, as we prepare to celebrate our centennial.