Sumner filled the Committee in the current status of the application for admission pool which is up more than 20% over 2003. He said the applicant pool was larger, academically better, more financially prosperous, applying to more colleges and living further from the campus than the 2003 application pool.

The Committee agreed that is appropriate to require all applicants beginning in 2005 to submit the writing portion of the new SAT-I. That portion of the test will not be used for admission purposes, but rather as 1 more good way to measure the writing growth of Grinnell students over a period of years. This was the recommendation to the Committee from the proper faculty committee on writing assessment.

The Committee began a discussion of the Tuition Remission & Tuition Exchange programs, something of interest to the Committee since these programs require an expenditure of more than $1 M annually from the financial aid budget. The Committee agreed to learn more about the programs for further discussion, including the following:

1) Is the College in or out of balance with the programs (number of Grinnell offspring going elsewhere vs. number of TE coming to the College)?
2) How many are there this year?
3) How much money does the College collect from the GLCA for TE and where does that money go?
4) How many GC offspring are choosing GC vs. other ACM and GLCA colleges?

Dean Swartz and Sumner agreed to explore these questions and report back to the Committee.

Sumner distributed several new pieces of background information for the Committee's study.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:20 PM.

--Jim Sumner