Members: James Swartz (Chair), Gerald Adams, Mark Schneider, Pablo Silva, Bob Grey, Elizabeth Dobbs, Josh Blue (01-53), Kendra Young (15-43), Joseph Nelson (09-78), and George Carroll (03-08).

1. The minutes from the 10/03/00 meeting were approved.

2. The committee continued the discussion about the nature of independent study. Where do we go from here? What do we want to accomplish? Do we move the discussion to the Divisions? These questions were raised. There are a number of issues regarding the use of faculty time that the Executive Committee will need to address. The question was raised as to how activities such as guided reading and independent study fit in with the goals of a Grinnell education. The committee attempted to determine the most pressing issues surrounding independent study. At this time the committee identified three issues. The first is the fact that there are no clear catalog definitions for 297, 387, 397, and 399. The second issue is that currently the greatest operational knowledge about the nature of these activities resides with one person. The third issue is that more and more students in the humanities and social studies divisions are doing MAPs during the summer, and we have not developed a course designation for these activities. We will continue this discussion after Helen has drafted her comments about these areas and her proposal of ways in which to organize things differently (i.e. to define guided research, independent study, and guided reading).

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