To: All Invitees to the NAICUSE 2008 Summer Workshop at The Equinox Resort, Manchester Village, Vermont, July 27-30, 2008 

From:  Wendy Koenig, Chair, Time & Place Committee; President, Association of Vermont Independent Colleges 
Abe Lackman, Chair, NAICUSE; President, Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities 

Dear Colleagues: 

In July, we invite you to the Green Mountain State. Join us in a corner of Vermont loved by the Lincoln family as a summer retreat. Our base for the 2008 Summer Workshop is the located in the center of Manchester Village, at the foot of Mount Equinox. 

Guided by feedback from two-thirds of the state executives, we’re developing a practical, informative program. A few highlights: 

• With continued public attention on the issue of college costs, we will focus on the need to proactively change the tone and substance of public discussions by introducing a series of new messages. Cooperatively, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), with support from the NAICUSE Executive Committee, is researching possible messages our constituencies could use to address the cost issue. We will discuss the results of this research program during an extended session on Monday, July 28. 
• In addition, to respond to the call for more in-depth discussion on emerging state issues, we’ve added an additional roundtable where state executives and their staff members will be able to discuss a half dozen or more “Table Topics.” These topics will emerge from our traditional reports from the states, supplemented by a few areas that generated interest from the survey. 
• Finally, with ongoing turbulence in the credit markets affecting higher education in multiple ways, one or more guest experts will help us explore developments related to liquidity for student borrowers and ramifications for institutional debt (such as the effect of rating changes on bond insurers and the fall-out in terms of rate reset provisions). 

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Regrettably, you’ll no longer be able to arrive in town by Pullman car, transportation that once brought in Southern Vermont’s summer tourists. Instead, we recommend that you fly into Albany International Airport. Approximately 65 miles from Manchester Village, it’s the closest airport. For those who wish to fly into the Albany area on Saturday, the New York association has reserved a block of rooms at The Desmond Hotel and Conference Center and will be pleased to greet you at a small welcome event that evening. To reserve a room at The Desmond, call 518-869-8100 and mention the CICU group ID code 11F2N6. For a modest fee, please consider signing up for the Sunday shuttle in lieu of renting a car. Ground transportation will leave The Desmond on Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. for the hour and a half trip to Manchester Village, arriving around noon at The Equinox. The registration form will collect additional information from those who plan to take advantage of this option. For those of you who choose to rent a car for the drive from the airport, please note that summer traffic and some rural roads can mean a two-hour trip. You’ll want to keep this in mind when booking your return flight. (The program is full and worthwhile straight through noon on Wednesday!) 

This year, the registration fee is $250 for NAICUSE members/state association staff and $150 for guests of participants (once again, children are welcome with no fee). To register, please follow this link: http://www.naicuse.net/meetings/summer2008/index.asp. Please note that this year, payment of NAICUSE registration fees will be by credit card only. We expect that this new feature of the NAICUSE Web site will make processing your registration easier and more convenient for everyone. 

Register at the hotel by calling 1-800-362-4747 and tell them you are with NAICU to get the special rates of $179 for a townhouse one queen (very small room); $279 for a townhouse one queen bed; $299 “Run of House” for single/double occupancy room; or $429 for Townhouse Suite. Two- and three-bedroom townhouse suites are available upon request and availability. Our room block at the hotel will be held until June 12, 2008, but we urge you to make your reservations well before then so that you can obtain your preferred room option. There is a $25 per room / per day resort fee, which includes complementary wireless internet, valet, parking, newspaper delivery, in-room bottled water, mountain bikes, use of fitness and spa facilities, transportation around Manchester, local and 800 telephone calls, and housekeeping gratuity. Cancellation Policy: All reservations must be secured with a deposit equal to one night’s stay. Late arrivals or early departures will cause forfeiture of deposit. Cancellations that occur within 3 weeks of July 27, 2008 will result in forfeiture of the deposit. Cancellations prior to the 3-week cutoff will receive a full refund. 

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You can learn more about The Equinox, the town of Manchester Village, and the surrounding area at http://www.equinoxresort.com and http://www.linkvermont.com/townsvill/manchesterarea. 
You’ll note a great variety of activities listed online. We plan to share this information with NAICUSE Activities Coordinators so they can organize their respective activities. There are outstanding (and some unusual) facilities in and near The Equinox for golf, horseback riding, croquet, off-road driving, archery, falconry and fly fishing. We’re also making arrangements for The NAICUSE Book Club to meet over high tea on Monday afternoon, or alternatively over cocktails that evening. The resort also boasts a calm-invoking spa, with a wide variety of treatment options. 

To help you plan for an extended trip to Southern Vermont and interior New England, we have assembled a variety of ideas and Web links grouped under themed “experiences.” At the NAICUSE registration home page you’ll find “Taste of New England,” “Rough and Tumble,” “Culture Maven,” “Family Fun,” “Shop ‘Til You Drop,” “Historic Vermont,” and other itineraries to whet your appetite. For those of you with literary leanings, we recommend these books:

• No Braver Deeds, The Story of the Equinox Guards, by Brian L. Knight, based on the prolific correspondence of Private Cyrus Hard of Manchester and articles from the Manchester Journal and other sources, paints an intimate portrait of Manchester during the Civil War era. 
• In Four Marys and a Jessie: The Story of the Lincoln Women, C. J. King tells the stories of the Lincoln and Todd women across two centuries. 
  

We look forward to seeing you in Vermont in July! 

Sincerely,                     

 Abe Lackman