Council Meeting

The A & S Council met yesterday to give an airing to faculty views on the Round Table Report. Before going into that let me thank those who participated in this professional discussion. There were significant differences of opinion and people managed those without throwing tables, chairs or other faculty at one another. I would also like to thank those who wrote the report. An extraordinary amount of time and effort has gone into this document. The problem is, I just don't like the document. I was a member of the original round table. I attended the fall meetings of the "advanced round table" as a representative of A & S Council. I just do not see this as a visionary document.

A lot of faith has been placed in the twin concepts of integrative learning and technology. Historically, I just don't see those as having provided any great changes in American higher education. Both will take resources. As many of you know, resources make a college. With them, over time, you can develop a reputation as a quality institution. Without them, students will begin to believe they are attending a community college. Resources need to be used to recruit and retain high quality faculty and students. How one organizes or even teaches the curriculum rarely determines the quality of an institution.