John Eckenrode, professor and chair of human development and co-director of the Family Life Development Center at Cornell University, served as Cornell's representative last month at Vice President Al Gore's forum, Commitments for the Future: Education for Community Building, on the need for education for community development.

On June 22, Eckenrode was one of about 20 experts from universities across the nation who met with Gore and his wife, Tipper, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., to discuss how better to support and sustain communities. Gore said he hoped that universities would develop interdisciplinary degrees or courses of study in community building and in families and community. Earlier Eckenrode had participated in a larger conference, Family Re-Union, devoted to examining ways in which communities can support families.

The outcome of the sessions is a nationwide initiative "to educate a new generation of community builders with the inter-disciplinary skills that they will need to build communities for the 21st century and to promote service learning and partnerships between communities and institutions of higher education," according to Vice President Gore's press release.

Cornell is one of the 14 universities that endorsed and will participate in the new initiative between communities and institutions of higher education. Plans currently are under way to determine Cornell's role in the initiative.