On Nov. 1, the Commission on the Liberal Arts called the first meeting of its Steering Committee to present each of the three subcommittees with a mandate to guide their work.  

The three subcommittees are:

• Learning Through Instruction, co-chaired by Kim Loudermilk (Institute for the Liberal Arts) and Maeve Howett (Nursing)

• Learning Through Innovation, co-chaired by Hiram Maxim (German studies) and Jacques Galipeau (Medicine)

• Learning Through Integration, co-chaired by Thee Smith (Religion) and Ruth Parker (Medicine).

(To see the full rosters for each committee, as well as the specific mandates for each, click on the links above.)  

In the mandate, each committee has been asked to develop a series of strategic goals and concrete recommendations to achieve CoLA’s vision: to re-think current structures and processes in ways that will both highlight what Emory does well and what we can do better to achieve the core values of a liberal education.  

The committees were urged to re-imagine boldly and creatively what Emory could be rather than focusing on obstacles:

• What do we do well?  What do we want to keep?

• What do we want to change?

• What do we want to construct?

In developing their recommendations, committees will consider:

• The core values of a liberal arts education as articulated in the vision statement

• Issues of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity

• All constituencies, including undergraduates, graduate students, professional students, faculty, administrators, staff and community partners.

• Issues of infrastructure.

In making recommendations, committees are also asked to think through:

• How initiatives are related to/aligned with individual units’ strategic plans and priorities

• How implemented changes can be evaluated both in the short term and the long term.