Thinking About the Future By Tom Tritton People often ask me what the future holds for Haverford. Will things be different, they ask with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. Should we look for major changes or are we doing fine, thank you. In fact, these are exactly the kinds of questions new presidents like to ask. Fortunately, a mechanism is available to look into such futuristic matters because the College is standing for re-accreditation this year. Administered by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, this occurs about every decade and is centered around a comprehensive self-study. Since our goal is to involve as much of the Haverford community as possible in envisioning our future, I thought I would take this opportunity to discuss the self-study in a forum for alumni and friends. We begin, naturally enough, at the beginning. For us, the beginning is our Statement of Purpose which can be found as the first page of any recent catalog. These words are actually a description of the College's mission. With this as a starting point, faculty, students, and staff are working together to seek a common understanding about what our mission is. To help guide the discussion we have prepared six queries about the Statement of Purpose, and these are reproduced in the sidebar. We have organized our effort into seven working groups, each grappling with different facets of the College, but bound together by the same statement and queries about our mission and purpose. The working groups are as follows: Faculty and Curriculum. This is the heart of the matter and includes both teaching and research. A college is the curriculum, and to have the best curriculum we need to have the best faculty. Thus, this group is examining the curriculum from top to bottom, pushing hard at the boundaries of a broad-based liberal education, and ensuring that our faculty have the opportunity to be innovative, especially in the interdisciplinary areas where contemporary scholarship and society intersect. Educational Outcomes.Outcomes assessment is a hot buzzword in higher education. Broken down to its simplest meaning, this asks how we know whether our programs are doing the job we expect of them. Since we regularly evaluate all academic departments and constantly monitor the effectiveness of teaching and learning, this aspect of the self-study is already well organized. In addition, we are thinking about ways to profile both students and alumni to assess the development that occurs as persons transform from one to the other. Academic Support. Haverford has scores of services that support the educational enterprise, and we will look into their effectiveness. These include classrooms, laboratories, studios, the library, audiovisual and multimedia services, language learning center, student advising, field trips, literary publications, distinguished visitors program, etc. Most importantly, computing and information technology are vital to our future. We are on the forefront now, but need to be imaginative about how we will continue to stay there. Student Services. Students are the reason we exist and the student experience should be central to all that we do. We have an extensive variety of student services and activities, including personal and career counseling, community service and social action, multicultural affairs, athletics, social occasions, and health services. Central to our being are student self-governance, the Honor Code, and close collaborations with Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore. We are investigating whether this array of services and approaches is optimal. Financial and Capital Resources. We can't accomplish anything without a secure financial base and a well kept physical plant. This working group will assess the budgetary forces at play for Haverford, the major trends in financing higher education, and how our expenses and revenues project for the future. Also, we will examine whether we are being good stewards of our stunningly beautiful grounds, especially as we work towards a major initiative to build new science facilities. Governance and Communications. The College is governed by the Board of Managers, which itself is just completing a detailed self study of its work and practices. In addition to governance, this working group has taken on the task of measuring how we convey our messages to the public, how we participate in the national conversation about higher education, and how we increase our visibility as a preeminent center of learning. Finally, this working group will also consider the College's Quaker values and heritage, and how to sustain this distinctive character in the future, seeking guidance from members of the Corporation. Steering Committee. This 17-member committee, composed of faculty, students, staff, and a Bryn Mawr representative, will oversee the entire self study and assemble the final document to be submitted for external review. Also, this group will take on the central questions of admissions and financial aid policy, and how these will shape the institution for the future. Our timetable is to prepare first drafts of the working group reports by summer 1998, and then launch intensive campus discussion next fall. The final report will be submitted to the Board for approval in February 1999. Later in the spring, a reaccreditation team&emdash;a panel of outside educational experts&emdash;will visit campus and submit their recommendation to the accrediting body. This self-study is an ambitious and wide ranging undertaking, but at the end we will have collectively defined and refined what Haverford is to be. I welcome your commentary, advice, and critique as we proceed through this work.   Queries for All Working Groups 1. A liberal arts curriculum is at the center of our mission. How do we define, evolve, and measure the quality of our curriculum? 2. The co-curricular experience and a concern for personal growth are emphasized in the Statement of Purpose. How do Haverford students encounter their education in this regard? 3. How is the stated commitment to diversity manifest in the curriculum, in the environment, and in the actions of the College community? The mision statement implies that we seek both a diverse and a close community. Are we successful? 4. We value a challenging and rigorous educational experience while simultaneously stating that we are flexible and have fewer rules and less formal supervision. Can all of these be achieved simultaneously? 5. There is considerable emphasis placed on integrity, honesty, concern for others, and the Quaker heritage. In what ways do we teach, demonstrate, and live by such values? 6. Are there aspects of our purpose that are not contained in the mission statement? The Steering Committee, for example, listed leadership, critical thinking, the arts, the environment, information technology, research, and an international perspective as important to Haverford, but not directly foregrounded in the Statement of Purpose.