ACL Conference - wrap-up

Friday morning, I made it over to the check-out area to say good-by to a few people before catching a tour of historic Columbia with a small group of other attendees.

While I and SR were hanging around the check-out area, we picked-up a discussion we started the night before about possible doing a presentation for next year's conference. The previous night, we had drawn a blank about any topics that we could possibly be knowledgable about that would be of interest to others. Friday morning, somehow the idea was suggested of doing a panel discussion about preparing for an accreditation visit. We both have some experience in an accrediting body visiting our schools and we have both visited other schools as part of accreditation site visit teams. Our friend JE has also been on site visits to other schools and will be preparing for a visit at her institution within the next 2-3 years. Additionally, KW's institution was very recently visited and is actively involved in responding to suggestions and recommendations made during the visit. 3-4 people is just about right for a panel discussion and our experiences seem to complement each other. We'll see if we are able to follow through and pull this off by next June.

I enjoyed the tour of Columbia. We had a group of about 11 people. Our guide took us on a driving tour of the city that was just over 1 hour long. We passed the capital, areas of the city that had been destroyed by Sherman, and many recent buildings that had been built to blend in with the surrounding historic buildings. We stopped to tour two different houses. The Robert Mills house was the first one. One of the few private homes designed by Robert Mills (designer of the Washington Monument and many public buildings), this private home was never a private residence, as the owner died before it was completed and his widow was unable to claim it due to the fact that it was not designated as hers in the will. This house was once home to Columbia Bible College. The second home we toured was owned by a free black family from before the Civil War into the 1970's.

After lunch with the group at Cracker Barrel, I caught a ride to the airport. However, this put me at the airport by 4:00 when my flight wasn't until 8:30. I placed an overdue phone call to my mother and enjoyed talking with her for a couple of hours. My flights home were uneventful and I was able to get some sleep and start to catch-up from the many late nights.

I'm looking forward to next year's conference already!