If this article in Friday’s issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education is correct, attendance is going to be down at next month’s meeting of the American Educational Research Association.
The Washington-based group typically draws between 12,000 and 16,000 researchers to its yearly conventions. And this year’s meeting is scheduled to take place April 13-17 in sunny San Diego, a not unattractive destination.
But the association is anticipating a dip in attendance because of the current economic climate. Budget constraints, in fact, have prompted some state university systems to limit convention travel to professors or other faculty members who are scheduled to present papers.
As Felice J. Levine, the association’s executive director points out in the Chronicle piece, that’s a hardship for graduate students and other young scholars who stand to benefit the most from the chance to network and learn from the senior scholars in their fields.
Empty hotel ballrooms or not, yours truly still plans to attend. Look for my blog posts from the convention every day that week. If the Starbuck’s lines are going to be shorter this year, I should have plenty of time to write.