With surf, turf and what Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron called a "fabulously delicious" column of chocolate for dessert, the Task Force on Undergraduate Education met for the first time Thursday at the Faculty Club.
The task force, which will undertake a broad review of the College and its curriculum, comprises 10 faculty members and three undergraduates and will make recommendations to University officials in the spring of 2008.
The committee's first meeting was primarily an introduction to the task force's charge, and Bergeron - who chairs the committee - spoke briefly about the practical and philosophical responsibilities the task force has in examining the college, said Kathleen McSharry, associate dean of the College and dean of chemical dependency, who staffs the committee.
The committee will not begin discussing the specific processes it will use to review the College until its next meeting at the end of the semester, Bergeron said.
"It was a great first meeting," Bergeron said.
McSharry said the meeting soon progressed into a discussion of areas critical to a review of the College, as well as questions about the basic principles of a liberal education at Brown.
The task force's members "were raising issues that they feel are fundamental to a liberal education," McSharry said, noting that quantitative skills, proficiency in a foreign language and writing were some of the areas discussed by the committee.
Task force member and Dean of the Graduate School Sheila Bonde said she was particularly interested in the question of mathematical literacy raised by Jill Pipher, professor of mathematics and a member of the committee.
McSharry said the basic concepts of liberal learning are of particular importance to Brown because the New Curriculum does not have a system of general education requirements to build fundamental student skills.
The task force members also expressed concern about the perceived confusion over the College's open curriculum. McSharry said the committee agreed that "the open curriculum is something to be obviously examined, but (the task force should) also try to see how today's students can experience it."
The three student members of the task force were present at Thursday's meeting, and member Jason Becker '09 said he was impressed by the openness of the discussions.
"It wasn't a kind of top-down meeting," Becker said. "The best part about the meeting was that everyone was really interested in what everyone had to say."
Becker said the student members had met before the meeting to discuss the task force's role among themselves and added that he was looking forward to getting student input on aspects of the College the committee would review.
"I just know that the three student representatives really developed a strong rapport, and we've got really good chemistry," Becker said. "We really want as many people to be involved as possible."
The task force has been given a reading assignment for its next meeting at the end of the semester: Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences Sheila Blumstein's "The Brown Curriculum Twenty Years Later," an evaluation of the curriculum published in 1991, as well as a 1976 report by four undergraduates on institutional and curriculum reform at Brown.
Blumstein, a member of the task force and former dean of the College and interim president, said her report "is a first step and hopefully will provide some background for looking at the curriculum, though it is fairly old."
The 1991 report attempted to identify basic principles that guide the New Curriculum, as well as to see if students were using the curriculum in harmony with those basic principles, Blumstein said. She said she hoped committee members would apply the same questions in the report to the College today and asked, "Is the curriculum set up to meet those requirements, or those expectations, or those philosophical principles?"
Though Blumstein's report drew from a number of sources, Blumstein said the task force's report would be a "richer experience" because it will be a group effort.
"Essentially (the 1991 report) was not a report of a committee, and so I think (the task force) is better because you have multiple perspectives and multiple levels of input," Blumstein said.
Becker said Blumstein's report would also help the committee to begin compiling a list of possible recommendations for the College.
"The indication in the room was that here were some things that (Blumstein) had recommended doing, or at least looking at, that remained weak points today," Becker said.
Bergeron said members will select subcommittees they wish to serve on at the next meeting. Each subcommittee will deal with one of the four sections in the task force's charge - general education, teaching and assessment, concentrations and advising programs.
"I think that the real work will begin this fall as the subcommittees begin to collect data, interview students and alumni and hold forums for the campus," Bergeron said.
