Present: R. Osgood, J. Brand, J. Swartz, H. Scott, P. Smith, W. Ferguson, B. Grey,
K. Kamp, T. Moore, M. Pillado-Miller, B. Voyles.

David Clay was present at the request of the President.

The meeting came to order at 4:20 p.m. in the Ricker House.

These minutes record a sense of a special discussion focused on the academic mission of the College, but was not constrained to that realm. It is the President's intention that following some synthesis of this discussion, there will be a further discussion with two Trustees, including Caroline Little who is Chair of the Board.

M. Pillado Miller suggested a process for facilitating the discussion which centered on each participant in the meeting noting their ideas on multicolored note pads, which would be followed by a process of synthesis within each of three groups equally representing administrators and faculty. Three colors were selected to represent those activities/policies/procedures/programs which should be stopped, kept, or added.

The President noted that it seems from the discussion that we are pretty good at adding and keeping, but not at dropping. He noted that in the post-FFE era, he will have to ask the Trustees to increase endowment spending as a part of operating budget and will need to be able to show them that we have a process in place with regard to making decisions which reflects prioritization. He asked Council to identify themes that run through these articulations (above) that inform strategies. Council made several observations:

--several areas have been identified where institutional efficiencies could be increased, thereby improving the faculty cost-benefit ratio where time has been identified as key.

--we should capitalize on geographic differentiation in perspective by prospective students by recognizing the midwest students chose Grinnell for a strong education and those on the two coasts chose Grinnell for its reputation for encouraging responsible social and political activism.

--we have a strong core faculty commitment to pedagogy, writing, oral skills and working one-on-one with students, so we should develop a system whereby we can verify/assure ourselves and our students that this is what they will gain and why this is important to their future.

--in general we are viewed as a serious academic institution, but without distinction. However, the case can be made that at Grinnell: pedagogy rules, students benefit greatly from engagement by doing (arts, athletics, science, student-faculty research, off-campus international study, etc.).

The President suggested that he and J. Brand would retreat and undertake to distill the discussion with the view toward articulation of strategies or strategic themes, processes, identification of responsibility for decision-making. The next step will be to meet and discuss this synthesis. This would be followed by a group discussion with two Trustees.

The meeting adjourned at 7:45 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese