Delegates from various American academic institutions and the director of the CIA assembled at the University this week for the Association of American Universities’ fall meeting, the first time in the school’s history that the event was held on campus.
Much of the on-campus proceedings were cloaked in secrecy as armed police officers guarded areas surrounding the EMU Ballroom while university presidents and chancellors from around the country discussed a variety of issues behind closed doors. The five-day conference was not publicized before or during the event, and notification of the event only was made public Tuesday.
The AAU is an elite organization comprising 62 public and private research universities in the United States and Canada, and membership is by invitation only. The University is one of two universities in the Pacific Northwest, and the only one in Oregon, involved with the association.
The University had never hosted the conference since it became a member of the organization in 1969. The University is not scheduled to host another conference for at least another 62 years.
“We’ve been privileged to host the AAU for the last two-and-a-half days,” University President Dave Frohnmayer said at a press conference Tuesday. Frohnmayer added that it is an honor for the University to be part of the association because members are admitted based on “excellence and research and production of knowledge in the academic endeavor.”
Areas of discussion at the meeting included the role North American research universities should play in addressing global issues such as terrorism, economic equality and health crises. AAU representatives also talked about the need to increase the role of the humanities at research universities.
The meeting also drew CIA Director George Tenet to the University. AAU Vice Chairman Mark S. Wrighton said Tenet stressed the need for universities to create programs that develop students’ understanding of culture, economics and religions so universities can play their part in providing talented individuals to organizations such as the CIA.
Other areas of discussion included the status of affirmative action since the latest U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding the University of Michigan’s admissions cases, as well as interdisciplinary research and education.

John T. Casteen, AAU chairman and president of the University of Virginia, said discussions focused on ways to emphasize and support the humanities.
“This is an unusual issue for the AAU because most of our common dealings have to do with the sciences,” Casteen said.
Frohnmayer said representatives from about three-quarters of the member institutions attended the meeting to discuss several issues concerning policy and educational research. Frohnmayer added that the University’s role as a research institution is important.
“It’s really quite critical and it means a great deal in (the Pacific Northwest) that we have some part of this nature of responsibility,” he said.
Wrighton, also the chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, said he was glad to attend the meeting at the University and made a point to mingle with students during his stay here.
“We had just a great time,” he said. “I found some very delightful students interested in their institution and learning and making a contribution to their community.”
AAU President Nils Hasselmo said he was impressed with the campus and noted that the University should be proud to be a part of the organization.
“That is a mark, a badge of honor, because membership is by invitation only,” he said, adding that Frohnmayer and his staff were very hospitable. “They have set truly outstanding standards for hospitality, both in terms of intellectual content of the experience and in terms of the warmth and beauty of this campus.”
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