Charge: To research the "strategic academic plans" or similar documents from other institutions, particularly colleges of liberal arts within research universities, for additional ideas on initiatives appropriate to and plausible for implementation in the CAS.

Caucus 5 held meetings on December 10 and January 8 and 16. We reviewed planning documents, as well as related materials such as presentations made by university leaders, for Clemson, Connecticut College, Duke, Emory, George Washington, Harvey Mudd, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Penn, and Rice. We also gathered and evaluated information about activities and programs associated with Social Science centers and Humanities centers at other institutions.

In the rest of this report, we discuss the ideas and programs we found in these external documents that we found relevant to Vanderbilt and the activities and goals of SAPCAS.

A Center for International Studies: Such a center could address several issues, including the shortage of strategic initiatives in Social Sciences and Humanities and Chancellor Gee's stated desire to increase Vanderbilt's international presence. As first discussed in committee, and as seen at some other institutions, such a center can be defined very broadly. It could fulfill the SAP objectives by being an an inter-school, interdisciplinary program that would leverage existing Vanderbilt strengths (Law, Medicine and Owen School already have an international presence) and serve as a vehicle for obtaining and administering external funding, particularly for fellowships from the Fulbright program and from the International Education and Graduate Program Service of the US Department of Education (which typically funds International Studies programs). The role of McTyeire International House could be expanded, perhaps by making one of the new residential colleges an International Studies college that could also be used as a temporary residence for visiting faculty. A Center for International Studies could: help foster international research collaborations; help integrate and improve the quality of life of visiting faculty and students; organize and host talks, conferences, and workshops; administer international research travel grants to encourage graduate student research; involve alumni and local residents in Continuing education programs, including ESL courses for immigrants in Nashville; and help Vanderbilt to foster partnerships with other institutions and with industry. This idea was forwarded on to Marshall Eakin, Chair of Caucus 1B (Culture of Americas) and Joel Harrington to discuss International Studies further. We were also advised that the provost would appoint (and now has done so) a university-wide committee to address issues related to Internationalizing the campus.

A Thematic Focus: Transformations of the Public Sphere: This idea, forwarded to the committee internally from John McCarthy, was to establish a program of study and research that would enable Vanderbilt to be in the forefront of investigations into the nature of transformations of the public sphere. This idea was forwarded to Carol Burke, Chair of Caucus 1C (Center for the Creative Arts).

Communication of Science/Technology/Medicine: Materials from the Annenburg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania led us to discuss whether Vanderbilt had a role to play in this field. The significant niche we have is the pilot program for the interdisciplinary major "Communication of Science, Engineering and Technology" run by Adjunct Professor of Physics and Director of Science and Research Communications, C. Richard Chappell. After further investigation, we found that no other schools in the country, including the major schools of communication, have programs at the graduate or undergraduate levels, focusing on the communication of science, engineering, technology or medicine. Thus, this is a small program but is absolutely unique to Vanderbilt and is a program where we have some expertise and experience to build on, and one that could easily involve multiple units of the university and could possibly include graduate degrees. As this idea is in some fashion related to creative expression, this idea was forwarded to Carol Burke, Chair of Caucus 1C (Center for the Creative Arts).

Master's Programs: The committee found several schools in which strategic planning placed significant weight on strengthening or creating new Master's degree programs, especially but not exclusively in areas in which the sciences and humanities overlap. For example, Penn established new programs in Bioethics and Biotechnology and in Environmental Science. The College of Engineering also emphasized and created Master's programs in Telecommunications, Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, Bioengineering, electrical engineering and Information Science. Given the possible development of an MFA program, emerging out of the work of Caucus 1C (Center for the Creative Arts), this information was forwarded on to Caucus 1C Chair Burke and also to James Staros, Chair, Caucus 2.

Tuition for Master's programs: Out of committee discussions, but not particularly motivated by statements in other planning reports, the issue arose as to whether there should be lower tuition charged for (some) Master's programs. Again, this seemed to be an appropriate issue for consideration by, and therefore was forwarded on to, Caucus 1C, in that they are considering a new Master's degree program.

Institutionalize regular reviews of departments and programs: Emory reports that "Some of America's finest universities, particularly some in the Ivy League, have established standing visiting committees to oversee individual schools, departments, and other programs ... Emory should examine carefully the practice and determine whether a similar practice should be instituted here." We know that the Provost established a five year cycle to review all programs, but it is unclear (to those of us in Caucus 5) whether the Provost's current review of all A&S departments is a one-time event or is intended to establish a permanent, ongoing, regular review of all program and departments. It is reasonable to think that a highly respected Research I University should indeed emulate the Ivy League model of regular review by something akin to standing visiting committees. This idea was forwarded to Michael Kreyling, Chair of Caucus I.

Council on Interdisciplinary Concerns: Also identified in the Emory strategic plan was the idea that a permanent committee should be established to deal with issues of scholarship, tenure, evaluations, barriers related to interdisciplinary hires and teaching. This is especially appealing given the push in this planning process to establish and invigorate interdisciplinary programs. This idea was forwarded to Michael Kreyling, Chair of Caucus I.

Teaching by graduate students: Rice makes a strong case for employing graduate students in a very formal program that both permits and encourages teaching of regular courses by graduate students. The motivations for doing so, as presented in the Rice report are 1) better training and thereby better placement of PhDs upon completion of degree work (thereby bettering the reputation of the university) and 2) enriching the curriculum by broadening offerings. Duke also specifically mentions the value of having graduate students teach. This information, along with the criteria imposed by Rice to control this program, was forwarded to Don Doyle, Chair of Caucus 4.

Library resources: Many strategic plans have significant components targeted for investment in their libraries. Issues discussed were whether specific programs identified by the SAP should include parallel investments in the library. This information was forwarded to Don Doyle, Chair of Caucus 4.

Part-time and non-traditional Education Programs: Johns Hopkins University, in particular, emphasizes the role of part-time and non-traditional programs through the university. Such programs are vehicles to serve the community, provide revenues that "have become a significant factor in strengthening the financial footings of the divisions,'' can employ non-JHU faculty, and have different admissions standards than the full-time programs. At JHU, a Council of Deans, supervised by the Provost, established a formal process for the approval of such programs. Vanderbilt has some programs, e.g., the Master's in Liberal Arts & Sciences degree, that fit the JHU vision but not many. Perhaps we should have more. Related to this issue is the question as to whether all part-time and non-traditional programs must necessarily lead toward a degree.

Junior Fellowships and graduate student involvement in the RPW Center for the Humanities: We reviewed materials from web pages and newsletters for humanities programs at the Universities of Washington, Michigan, Kansas, California at Riverside and Rice, Stanford and Northwestern Universities, provided to us by Mona Frederick, Executive Director of the Warren Center here at Vanderbilt. While humanities centers take many different forms, the most outstanding difference between the RPW Center and many of the most active and vibrant interdisciplinary humanities centers elsewhere is the lack of engagement with students. Many other centers involve their graduate students in their programs, have on-going programs for graduate students, and sponsor programs for undergraduates; many provide graduate fellowships, especially at the dissertation writing stage to provide relief from teaching obligations and many also have "junior fellowships'' and internships for undergraduates. The students who participate in programming in these interdisciplinary humanities centers are often those considering careers in academia. The already strong reputation of the RPW Center likely could be enhanced considerably, thereby keeping it in the front ranks of all the ever-improving campus-based interdisciplinary humanities centers, by adding support and programming that would involve graduate and perhaps undergraduate students.