"This invitation to join with other prestigious universities validates much of the work that has gone on at Emory during the past decade," President William M. Chace said. "I am delighted and proud that Emory has been recognized for its strength in research and graduate education."
Emory is the first Georgia institution admitted to membership in the AAU and only the sixth in the South. The University joins regional compatriots Duke, Tulane, and Vanderbilt universities and the Universities of Florida and North Carolina.
Founded in 1900 by fourteen first-rank institutions, including most of the Ivy League, Stanford University, and the University of California at Berkeley, the AAU now comprises fifty-eight American universities and two Canadian institutions. Membership in the association is by invitation and requires the approval of three quarters of the members.
The AAU serves members in two ways: by developing national policy positions on issues that relate to academic research and graduate and professional education, and by providing them with a forum for discussing a broad range of other issues, such as undergraduate education.
The graduate school deans of member institutions form the Association of Graduate Schools (AGS), which provides a forum for addressing issues concerning doctoral education. The AGS also serves as an advisory body to the AAU on graduate education policy.
Emory and the University of California at Santa Barbara were the only two institutions invited to join this year. "Both Emory and Santa Barbara . . . are making major contributions to the advancement of the nation's research base and to the education of the nation's next generation of scientists, scholars, and teachers," said AAU President Cornelius Pings. "Both of them are well-positioned to continue to strengthen their standing in these areas in the years ahead."--A.B.
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