when I consider Cathy concerns, I think we still can move forward with the survey --- as long as we are clear that we are gathering perspectives about liberal arts programs and interests, independent of what issues might arise elsewhere. There is no need to claim that everything about liberal arts is unique, although some elements are. If this committee is to be, among other things, a support and networking group for faculty at liberal arts colleges, then the committee should feel free to discuss any topics that liberal arts CS faculty may need to address. If insights from non-liberal-arts colleges are helpful (e.g., regarding introductory programming languages), then the committee can discuss them. It may be that general insights need to be refined within a liberal arts context --- but that should not prevent the group from discussing them. Overall, Cathy's comments remind me that we need to be careful NOT to claim that everything about liberal arts colleges is disjoint from everything about other types of schools. Let's focus on topics that are meaningful to liberal arts faculty. Not all of these topics may be unique to our types of schools, but our sharing can help us --- liberal arts faculty --- in all dimensions of our work. If other types of schools have similar issues, perhaps they can learn from us and we from them. Henry -- Henry M. Walker Samuel R. and Marie-Louise Rosenthal Professor of Natural Science and Mathematics Professor of Computer Science Noyce Science Center 1116 8th Avenue Grinnell College Grinnell, IA 50112-1690 United States of America +1 641-269-4208 Fax: +1 641-269-4984 http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~walker/ ############################ To unsubscribe from the SIGCSE-LIBARTS-COMM list: write to: mailto:[log in to unmask] or click the following link: http://listserv.acm.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ACMLPX.CGI?SUBED1=SIGCSE-LIBARTS-COMM&A=1