Though assessment has been a topic of conversation within the academy for over 20 years, it has not, as Peter Ewell argued in a keynote address at the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) 2002 Assessment Conference, become a "culture of use," a practice "embedded in the lives and work" of those who inhabit college campuses. Ewell attributes this, in part, to a dichotomized view of assessment, which is seen as both an internal stimulus for institutional transformation and a requirement externally imposed by accrediting agencies and other external forces.