Minutes - ATLAS Meeting, Oct 4, 2017
ATLAS
Intro by Jeff Cox
- Intro on teaching and reaching visioning
- Laying out of fall work
- Role of Committee and Report
Intro to A&S Strategic Planning Process by David Brown
- History of A&S process
- Work of committee to date鈥攄raft vision statement
- Schedule for committee鈥檚 work
Comment: We need to think about how we react to political pressures on higher education. We need to have a conversation on how we relate to the public.
Q. Can we discuss offering a free undergraduate education?
A. We will discuss anything participants wish to raise.
Comment: We need to rethink libraries. What will they look like the future? Can they include maker spaces?
Comment: We might want to look at the University of Wisconsin鈥檚 process around imagining a 鈥淐ounterfactual Campus to inquire about the university we would like to live in.
Comment: Consider all the publics we serve.
Comment: We need to have ways of measuring whether we are actually teaching critical thinking.
Comment: We need to think about how empathy is part of being an intellectual.
Comment: We need to think through the role of public intellectuals.
Comment: We must maintain our commitment to diversity
Comment: Think about spaces and how they can be built to be welcoming, how they can encourage connections.
Comment: We need to think about the language we use to talk about how we prepare students for future, changing careers. It is not all vocational.
Comment: The public does not necessarily understand the function of a research university; they think about undergraduate education and career training.
Comment: People on campus are concerned about talking about controversial topics. Safe spaces vs. free speech. Compliance as stifling speech, creativity. If the AF process does one thing, it should end the erosion of universities as centers of open conversations.
Comment: Develop a course on 鈥淪cience for Future Presidents,鈥 鈥淭echnology for Future Presidents鈥 to provide students with the information they need to be citizens.
Comment: Integrate design charrettes into the work of the university.
Comment: We should investigate what allows certain universities (Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech) to rise. Leadership is a key.
Comment: Creativity, innovation seem tired terms. Let鈥檚 find a new term.
Comment: We need more options for students on degree plans.
Comment: We should create a 鈥渢ender鈥 university. Explore work of indigenous anthropologists on a culture of tenderness鈥攖ending, attending.
Comment: Discuss the status of instructors.