The Last (?) Meeting

The last round table meeting was held yesterday. Unlike the last time, I will not give you a blow by blow description. First, the morning was fairly irrelevant and second, the most important stuff came at the end anyway. When all was said and done the Committee believed that the College should commit to an in-depth evaluation of five issues. These are, in no order of importance, a redefinition of scholarship, an examination of the curriculum both at the departmental and core levels, an analysis of teaching modalities, a look at the way we are arranged spacially as departments and finally graduate education. I am being sparse in my description because the Learning Alliance will give the Steering Committee a report which will then be circulated. At that time, hopefully, the results from the benchmarking study will also be available. At that point we will know more as to exactly where we stand.

Please let me be as clear as possible. This is the beginning of what will be a long and probably arduous process of introspection on the part of the College. In fact, when Zemsky asked if there was anyone who disagreed with the above list I raised my hand. At that point I turned to the Provost and asked, "Is this the beginning of the journey or the end?" She responded that this was the beginning and that we were in control. I decided to approve of the above list as a starting point. I'll have more later. Again, if you have issues or questions or wish me to expand personally on the points above, please let me know.