Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The Heart of CASL

What should be preserved as we look at change? Your survey responses highlight many aspects of our experience together:

• the community feel
• engaged faculty/student interactions
• small classes
• faculty collegiality
• inclusive nature
• respect for diversity
• the focus on the classroom experience
• our individuality
• the way we look out for one another
• the strong academic/professional relationships between faculty and students
• openness
• interdisciplinary spirit
• being a community of scholars aimed at enriching the minds and enabling the futures of students

And even your ideas about what might change reflect the passion for a liberal arts education that lies at our core:

"We need to create a new model for higher education around the liberal arts and focus on attracting incoming students rather than transfers. Students should want to come here because we offer something unique-- not because we're that place they can go and transfer all their other credits."

"Provide additional opportunities for students to engage in the extended academic and business community."

"Better communication and relationships across departments. In other words, cohesion. I feel we're too fragmented. This would also encompass better organization and systematizing. I think issues/problems/students sometimes fall through the cracks in the midst of multiple disconnects. While systems and processes will help, this improvement will also be very dependent on the commitment of invested faculty who CARE."

"More intellectual interaction among faculty, more colloquia, forums, etc. Not more meetings."

"I would like to see greater support for the unique blend of teaching, research, and mentoring which characterizes the teacher-scholar model at quality liberal arts colleges. All of the time spent on deliberations and vision statements will be for naught if we do not invest the time and money necessary to truly support faculty, staff, and students. To be truly supportive of small classes, small programs, and research mentoring of undergraduate students, we will have to reconcile our financial constraints with a vision where faculty have time to meaningfully engage with students in this manner."

"We need a modernizing of our approach to higher education, e.g., a strengthened commitment to connect theory to practice, via academic service learning, work/study, community engagement and related programming. Students also need to better understand how to link what they are learning to careers that are family sustaining and meaningful."

Join the conversation. The CASL Strategic Planning survey is open through Wednesday, December 3, 2014.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CASLCommSPSurveyB

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