President Dahl attended the annual meeting of the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C. from Saturday, Feb. 7 to Tuesday, Feb. 9.
ACE is a national organization that represents and advocates the interests of all institutions of higher education on Capitol Hill. Dahl described it as "the top higher education organization."
Over 600 representatives, presidents and provosts from colleges around the country and world attended the meeting, which hosted speakers such as Arne Duncan, the new secretary of education, and Gordon Gee, president of Ohio State University. Also in attendance were envoys from Romania and several university presidents from Iraq.
Attendees were briefed about the impacts of both versions of the economic stimulus bill on higher education.
In addition to attending the general meeting, Dahl was present because as of this meeting, he has been elected to a three-year term on the ACE Board of Directors where he will help set policies and represent higher education. He is also a representative of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, an organization committed to improving liberal arts education.
In addition, Dahl presided over an international symposium of international presidents titled "Promoting Greater U.S./Korean Cooperation." Dahl co-chaired the meeting with Byungdoo Sohn, the president of Sogang University, which runs an active exchange program with Geneseo.
Participants at that meeting, 12 of which were Korean, compared higher education in both nations. Approximately 80 percent of college-aged Koreans are enrolled in higher education.
"These are exciting things where we can try to get the college involved nationally and internationally in higher education," said Dahl.
He said he attended the meetings not only to learn about key modern issues in higher education, but also to make a difference, get Geneseo's name out and participate in issues beyond the state level.