Doug, thanks for giving us a charge! Let me try to kick things off on item (1) by asking a question. I like the temporary definition of "liberal arts" in the committee's goals and focus statement. However, I am at an institution that is formally classified as a liberal arts college, fits the definition well, and has all of the suggested "highlights." Are there list members for whom the temporary definition is not a good fit to your institutional context? In what ways? How might the definition be written to include you? Janet Douglas Baldwin wrote: > > Greetings, and welcome (if you haven't already been welcomed) to the > SIGCSE committee on computing education in liberal arts colleges. > Thanks to everyone who came to our gathering at SIGCSE. I was > pleasantly surprised at how big that was (35 - 40 people), and at the > enthusiasm the folks there showed for the committee's job. Alyce Brady > took some good notes on the conversation, which are the basis for this > message. > > Much of the conversation was about what the committee might do, and > another theme that kept popping up was the question of just what we > will mean by the phrase "liberal arts." These are basically the first > two things we need to work on in any case, so the first thing I want > to do is set the following agenda for the next couple of months. > Please consider yourselves charged to use this mailing list to discuss > your ideas about the following 2 items: > > 1. What we mean by "liberal arts." There is temporary definition in > the committee's goals and focus statement > (http://sigcse.org/sigcse/programs/committees/liberal), roughly > "liberal arts college" as a place that emphasizes liberal education -- > in the words of the goals and focus, "a post-secondary institution > that emphasizes education for the breadth of graduates' career, civic, > and personal lives, in contrast to institutions that focus on more > narrow preparation (e.g., for a specific profession)." But this is > only one of many definitions bouncing around. Another I've seen boils > down to a college that emphasizes disciplines in the arts, humanities, > and sciences over disciplines in more professional areas, and another > amounts to colleges that fit an institutional profile of being small, > undergraduate, and (usually) private. We absolutely do *not* have to > use the definition from the goals and focus statement. There's a lot > of overlap between definitions and their implications, but there are > also enough differences that if we don't adopt some statement of what > we will mean by the term, we're likely to find ourselves talking past > each other as we get down to the real work. > > 2. We also need to identify a set of issues that we will concentrate > on. Again, the goals and focus statement mentions two, but a lot of > others came up in conversation at SIGCSE. If we have a manageable set > of these in place by, say, mid-June (not at all accidentally, a date > that most of us in the US can equate to "about when my > semester/quarter ends," whichever kind of calendar you use, and that I > hope any non-US participants can equate to some similar calendar > milestone) we can use the summer to start gathering whatever data we > need to shape answers. The questions from the goals and focus > statement are > > - Is there a need for an organization that can be the "voice" of > liberal arts colleges in larger discussions of computing education? If > so, how might such an organization be set up, and what can this > committee do to "pass the torch" to it? > > - Is there a need for a network that allows computing faculty at > liberal arts colleges to share struggles, ideas, questions, etc. with > each other? > > Some things that were mentioned at SIGCSE, include > > - Should there be a larger set of "exemplar" courses and curricula for > liberal arts, as with ACM/IEEE CS2013, but perhaps only partially tied > to it? Maybe not as formal as the CS2013 exemplars, simply a table of > what courses/subjects different schools include. Even identifying the > titles used for programs and courses would be helpful. > > - Should there be a survey of issues facing liberal arts computing > that departments can use in discussions with administrations? In > particular, what are liberal arts computing programs seeing with > enrollments today? > > - In connection with such a survey, do we even know who the "liberal > arts computing" people are? Should we try to systematically identify them? > > - Should there be a liberal arts analog of ABET to "accredit" liberal > arts computing programs (this was explicitly identified as an > out-of-the-box, thinking-at-the-limits, question by the person who > posed it) > > - How do we communicate the advantages of teaching computing in the > liberal arts to others? For instance, to graduate students who might > be potential faculty? To potential students for our own programs? > > - Are there things that could be done to help liberal arts schools > trying to start computing programs? > > > And finally, moving on from immediate actions, a few other notes from > the SIGCSE gathering: Most important, this is supposed to be a very > inclusive committee. Regardless of what definition of "liberal arts" > we end up with, anyone who is interested in that kind of computing > education is welcome to participate. As of SIGCSE, we had about 80 > people subscribed to the mailing list, and more have joined since -- > my guess is that we're at 90 or 95 now. We should try to get all of us > wearing "ask me about liberal arts computing" ribbons at the next > SIGCSE. Speaking of next SIGCSE, it would be nice for us to have some > preliminary report that can be delivered at a special session or > similar. This would be based on discussions this spring and data > gathered over the summer. A final version can include feedback from > SIGCSE 2017 and might appear as a report in Inroads or similar later > in the year. > > Thanks again for joining the committee. 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