The arts in education was a primary focus of the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Academic Assembly, led by chair Peggy O'Neill Skinner, science department head at the Bush School, Seattle. O'Neill Skinner presented a video of creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson, who argues that we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Leonard Lehrer, dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts at Columbia College and chair of the College Board's Arts Advisory Committee, reported on the creation of a national Task Force on the Arts in Education with a goal of creating and sustaining an integrated vision for arts education in the United States.

The gavel was passed to the chair-elect of the Academic Assembly, Maghan Keita, professor of history and director of the Institute for Global Interdisciplinary Studies at Villanova University. Referring to a Forum plenary session, Keita said he agreed with Matthew Goldstein, chancellor of the City University of New York, who said that education must be seen as a national security issue. Keita encouraged the council members to leave the meeting with that thought in the front of their minds. "The College Board," he said, "will be the most dynamic engine in the country for the achievement of those goals."

At the Annual Meeting of the College Scholarship Service (CSS) Assembly, Shirley Ort, associate provost and director of scholarships and student aid at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and chair of the CSS Assembly, highlighted some of the goals of the CSS during her tenure as chair, including balancing the primacy of need-based aid with academic excellence. She urged the College Board to continue to strive to reassert its voice on public policy.

Members received an update on the College Board's Rethinking Student Aid Study Group, which plans to release its published report, including implementation cost information and research papers, next summer. The study group's guiding principles include the need for transparency in the allocation of student aid; federal aid eligibility to be equitable and predictable; gift aid with a reasonable amount of work and loans to be sufficient for students to complete the education of their choice; communication with families about educational opportunities to happen early and often, in simple, forthright terms; and programs and policies to be judged primarily on their value to students, rather than on the benefit to institutions or states.

The gavel was turned over to incoming chair Carolyn V. Lindley, university director of financial aid at Northwestern University.

The panel topic at the Annual Meeting of the Guidance and Admission Assembly, "Is the College Board Still the College Board?" was led by Christine J. Scott, director of college counseling at the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.

Panelist Kelly Walter, executive director of admissions at Boston University, said that she appreciates that the College Board is a membership organization in which everyone has a voice to speak up about issues of concern. Being a member gives participants the ability to make a difference to society at large, and the Board's collective voice gives credibility to its views. Gary D. Meunier, school counselor at Weston High School in Weston, Conn., said that he wishes more College Board members would tap into the various needs assessments, making the organization more membership-driven. Scott pointed out concerns among members that school counselors didn't have a voice, and that concern was being addressed. Jack Blackburn, dean of admissions at the University of Virginia, noted that the College Board has become a network of people from all different backgrounds, citing the diversity of speakers at this year's Forum.

The gavel was passed to the new chair, Patricia Smith, director of Guidance Services for Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa, Fla. Smith expressed her sympathy to those affected by the fires in California and made assurances that the College Board and the higher education community would rally around the affected students as they had done in the aftermath of major hurricanes.