A new commission promises to assess the future of undergraduate education based on research and data, rather than the anecdotes and hyperbole that undergird many analyses of higher education these days. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences plans to create a Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, funded with $2.2 million from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. A news release said the panel will examine "how well today's students are served by the existing system" and identify how higher education can "build on [its] historic strengths and respond effectively to the demographic, technological, financial and other developments that lie ahead." The panel is led by Michael S. McPherson, president of the Spencer Foundation, and Roger W. Ferguson Jr., president and CEO of TIAA-CREF. Its other members are:

Joseph E. Aoun, president, Northeastern University

Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean, University of Michigan School of Education

Sandy Baum, senior fellow, the Urban Institute

Rebecca M. Blank, chancellor, University of Wisconsin at Madison

John Seely Brown, former director, Xerox PARC research

Carl A. Cohn, clinical professor of education, Claremont Graduate University

Mitch E. Daniels Jr., president, Purdue University

John J. DeGioia, president, Georgetown University

Jonathan F. Fanton, president, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Robert Hormats, vice chairman, Kissinger Associates

Freeman A. Hrabowski III, president, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Jennifer L. Jennings, professor of sociology, New York University

Jeremy Johnson, co-founder and CEO, Andela

Daphne Koller, president and co-founder, Coursera Inc.

Sherry Lansing, founder and CEO, Sherry Lansing Foundation

Nicholas Lemann, professor and former dean, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

J. Michael Locke, former CEO, Rasmussen Inc.

Gail O. Mellow, president, LaGuardia Community College

Diana Natalicio, president, University of Texas at El Paso

Hilary Pennington, vice president, Ford Foundation

Beverly Daniel Tatum, former president, Spelman College

Shirley M. Tilghman, former president, Princeton University

P. Roy Vagelos, former president, CEO, and chairman, Merck

Michelle Weise, executive director, Sandbox ColLABorative, Southern New Hampshire University