Subject: Curricular Review Task Force Reports 5 (with attachment) and 6
From: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 07:53:00 -0700 (PDT)

Curriculum Review Task Force (CRTF)
Report #5 to the Faculty (April 2001)

Since the last faculty meeting the CRTF has held two meetings, and a
subgroup of the CRTF met once. We are making careful preparations for our
April 17 & 18 meetings with the Consultant/Demographer, George Dehne, as
these events have strong curricular implications . On March 9, President
Giese, Dean Arnold and I had a lengthy conference call with George Dehne.
This call was very helpful in setting the stage for his visit. At our
request, he suggested a couple of research articles for us to read. The CRTF
found the following two articles very useful and discussed them in detail at
one of its meetings, and later, at the meeting of the subgroup: (1) "Another
Look at the Future of the Private College " (2) "The New Student Generation:
Are We Ready? Do We Care?" These articles are available in his firm's
website. If you would like to read them, please go to www.gdais.com and
access the link, News and Research.

George Dehne will make a presentation to the faculty on Tuesday, April 17,
2001 at 4 p.m. in the Highlander Room. The Planning Group has asked him to
address some specific issues as part of his presentation. A copy of my
letter to him in this regard is attached, herewith. The Task Force will
discuss the implications of his presentation at two subsequent meetings with
him.

As you know, Dr. Ronald Purser, a nationally recognized consultant/
facilitator, will work with us on May 16 and 17, 2001 to help us make some
strategic decisions regarding the future of our college. He will be using a
sophisticated approach, on which he has co-authored a book under the title
"The Search Conference: A Powerful Method for Planning Organizational Change
and Community Action." He has already sent us a copy of this book, and more
articles are in the mail. We will share the relevant material with you.

We are pleased to announce that a five-member team from our college has been
selected to attend an Institute on Campus Leadership for Sustainable
Innovation on July  10 - 15, 2001 in Leesburg, VA. It is being conducted by
the Association of American Colleges and Universities with the support of
the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Forty institutions from all over the
country are expected to participate in this Institute. About half of them
were invited as Leadership Institutions. Hence, there was stiff competition
for the remaining positions, and our team consisting of Haq, McGaan, Watson,
Arnold and Ambrose was selected on the basis of a five-page narrative we
wrote. The Institute, besides helping us become a strong "learning-centered"
institution, should be very valuable for our Curricular Review. The
Institute will, also, give us an opportunity to interact with some of the
leading colleges and universities which have successfully implemented
innovative, academic programs. Our team will share their experiences with
the campus community through a Fall Round Table. Thanks.

Raj Ambrose
Chair
Attachment to Report 5
Mr. George C. Dehne
President
GDA Integrated Services

Dear George:
Preparations are underway for your visit both by the Office of Admissions
and the Curricular Review Task Force. The Task Force read your research
articles carefully and had a detailed discussion on several aspects of them
in their meeting on March 28. A subgroup of the Task Force is planning the
details of our meetings with you. We all feel that these events are very
important for our curricular initiative. We thought that we should let you
know some of our thoughts in relation to your research articles so that you
can possibly address them in your presentations and informal discussions.

A very important question for the Monmouth College community is how do we
position ourselves in the 21st century, taking into account (a)what the
students are looking for these days, (b)what the employers are expecting
from college graduates, and (c)what are the realistic market forces, and
thereby, develop a strategy to balance these important factors with the
liberal arts tradition and mission of our College. As you know, Monmouth
College belongs to the consortium, Associated Colleges of the Midwest. Among
the ACM Colleges, there are colleges like Carleton (in which you have served
before) and Grinnell who do not offer a Business program or prepare students
for Teaching Certification. However, in Monmouth, about two-thirds of our
students are in the Business and Education programs. We do try to teach our
Business, Accounting and Education courses from the liberal arts
perspective. Yet, we cannot deny the fact that these disciplines are more
profession-oriented than other disciplines like the hard sciences,
philosophy, classics etc. None of us wants Monmouth College to become
another vocational school. The realities (college finances, student base,
infrastructures etc.) are such that we cannot be a classic liberal arts
institution either like Carleton, Grinnell and Macalaster. Hence, the
crucial question for us is how do we position ourselves in this spectrum of
ACM and other nearby schools and develop a unique identity or niche for
ourselves. In abstract terms we want to be a true liberal arts college that
is sensitive to the market forces. What are your thoughts on this important
question?

On a less philosophical level, it will be helpful if you can develop for us
the demographics and student characteristics for Illinois separately and for
Illinois and its contiguous states. We are also interested in metropolitan
areas such as Chicago, where we have a strong student base, and American
minorities like Hispanics as well as Internationals. Who are the emerging
minorities in our region and what are their academic interests? How do we
attract the Asian population with their attraction for Sciences and big name
schools? When we look for out-of-state students, how does financial aid
plays into the admission/curriculum dynamics?

As we build the curriculum for the future we wonder what kind of academic
program will help us to attract and retain students. If we assume no serious
change in the student profile in the next 15 years, how should we
conceptualize our curriculum? If we assume continued changes in the student
profile of our region how dynamic and flexible our curriculum should be to
stay relevant in this fast changing world?

Your outstanding articles on "Another Look at the Future of the Private
College" and "The New Student Generation: Are we Ready? Do we Care?" Have
given us much to think about. In the first article, you are talking about
five kinds of small American Colleges (pp. 7 & 8). Monmouth College seems to
fall in the fourth group. Is this good or bad? What group should we ideally
aim for - given our circumstances? We have all these exciting questions to
some extent triggered by your thoughtful articles. We hope you can help us
to find some answers.

I will check with Marybeth regarding the material she is sending to you. We
shall send you a distribution of our majors. We will also send a copy of the
recent issue of our quarterly, Scotsnewse, which has a cover-page article on
our Curriculum Initiative. Please let us know if you need anything else. We
look forward to your visit.

Sincerely

Rajkumar Ambrose
Associate Dean of the Faculty
Chair, Curriculum Review Task Force

 Curriculum Review Task Force (CRTF)
 Report #6 to the Faculty (May 1, 2001)

Last Friday (April 27), during the presentation of the approved budget for
year 2001 - 2002, Dean Arnold announced that three tenure-track positions
will be available for the new curricular initiatives that may come out of
our current comprehensive curricular review. This commitment has been made
by the college administration on the assumption that we continue to maintain
our current enrollment and financial status . This is a tremendous
encouragement for our academic enterprise and on behalf of the CRTF, I would
like to thank President Giese, the President's council and the FIDC for
their continued support and encouragement for our Curricular Review.

Since our last faculty meeting, the CRTF has held two meetings. Its planning
subgroups also met twice. In addition, the CRTF had two lengthy meetings
with George Dehne besides participating in his presentation to the full
faculty. The discussions with George Dehne helped us to understand, to some
extent, the demographics of our region, what the present day students,
parents, and employers are looking for in college education, the type of
market forces we have to deal with, and future societal trends. It is very
gratifying to note that liberal education will continue to be in demand in
order to meet the needs of our fast changing world. The work load issue also
came up in our discussions. Dehne further pointed out that the 4 - 4 (two
semesters) calendar is not congenial for introducing curricular innovations.
We also got some insight into how other colleges are dealing with these
issues.

We are now getting ready for the two-day conference (May 16 & 17) with Dr.
Ronald Purser. We have already sent him plenty of material connected with
our curricular review, which he has read diligently. In the meantime, he has
sent us his book, The Search Conference: A Powerful Method for Planning
Organizational Change and Community Action, and other articles. Last
Wednesday, President Giese, Dean Arnold and I had a detailed phone
conversation with Dr. Purser. He mentioned that he is quite impressed by the
curricular review material we have sent him, and the progress we have made
so far. As ours is one of the biggest groups he has worked with, he is
bringing an Associate, Dr. Adrienne Gans, who is a clinical psychologist.
She got her doctorate from University of California, Berkeley and  taught
for a while in New York University before getting into the business world.
Both have considerable experience in working with a variety of organizations
that are planning to make significant changes in their communal enterprise.
The cover sheet of Purser's book states that "The Search Conference is not
just another management tool, but a participative  approach to planned
change that engages the collective learning and creativity of  large groups,
inspiring people to find common ground around new strategies, future
directions, and joint actions. The process combines the best practices
associated with strategic planning, systems thinking, and effective group
communications - enabling participants to take part fully, rise above
self-interest, and make decisions for the common good." This is exactly what
we would like to do soon after commencement!

Raj Ambrose
Chair, CRTF.