Professor of History and Women's and Gender Studies (WAGS) Margaret Hunt introduced the discussion of the CAP report. "This is our opportunity, I think in this committee as a whole, to polish the vision [of the CAP report], to point to areas that we as faculty feel especially strongly about or areas we feel the CAP didn't get quite right," she said. Hunt noted that even after a vote of faculty endorsement, the faculty would still vote on areas directly under its purview.
Professor of History John Servos then outlined points of the CAP report that would be part of the night's discussion. He noted new initiatives such as recommendations to increase recruitment of lower-income students, strengthen existing departments and enhance the open curriculum.
Servos specifically mentioned the plans to increase the number of international students at the College from about six percent to eight percent, noting the mutual benefit received from the presence of such students at the College. In pursuing this initiative, he said the College would need to apply a need-blind admissions policy towards international applicants.
Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought and Political Science Austin Sarat broached the subject of the controversial BusinessWeek article. He questioned clarification on two parts of the article: One line read that the key issue of Marx's initiative is "how much to lower academic credentials" and another section described Marx's "formal plan to give more of Amherst's coveted slots, perhaps as many as 25 percent, to students poor enough to qualify for a Pell Grant." Sarat also asked for some of the initiatives that the Office of Admission is pursuing in its commitment to recruit lower-income students.
Servos clarified that the 25 percent figure was a mistake by the BusinessWeek reporter and noted that the article contained several other factual errors. He noted that part of the plan was to increase slots in each class so that the College could accommodate lower-income students without ignoring its commitment to other groups such as students of color or athletes. He made clear, however, that the maximum number of additional students the College could sustain was around 25 per class. "We may in some cases need to take the academic three's where we might be able to fill a seat with an academic two. That is the difference between a student who has a 1380 combined SAT score and a student with a 1480 and not even that high," he said.
Dean of Admission and Financial Aid. Tom Parker provided a specific example. "You would be talking about trading an A-/B+ for a B+/A- if you actually look at the performance of academic two's as opposed to three's. It's a fairly negligible difference," he said. "I want to emphasize again and again, we're not talking about something dramatic. We're not talking about taking five's instead of two's; we're not talking about taking four's instead of one's; we're talking about the swap of one academic reader rating," said Parker.
Marx addressed the exaggerated elements of the BusinessWeek article. "There are elements of this particular piece that I think are somewhat sensationalized, somewhat drawing implications of disagreement," he said. "My stance is what we're aiming to do is to increase the applicant pool to Amherst, by these moves of the very best students and not to lower the standards. And to increase the entire pool, not just the yield from another Ivy to have that effect."
The president also cited other examples of the College's already existing commitment to recruit lower-income students: the College's Telementoring program, its association with Questbridge, a program that identifies talented, low-income students with the potential to succeed, and its relationship with alumni from underrepresented low-income areas such as Miami, Fl. and Texas who are part of outreach efforts. "There are various ways in which to do this [recruit lower-income students]. But our point is to increase the applicant pool at the highest end of academic standing and to assess the results. If presumably we got to the point where we felt we were making academic compromises, which we did not feel comfortable with, we would return to these issues," said Marx.
One professor questioned the possibility of reaching younger students such as those in junior high and then paying for an outstanding high school education so that issues of academic preparation and compromise wouldn't arise. Parker mentioned Harvard University's Princeton Academy which provides the opportunity for 14-15 year old Boston students to attend intense summer program at Harvard. "There is a model out there for something like that," he said.
Parker said that the most influential decision would be the College Board allowing institutions to search for talented students by income. The practice was cancelled according to Parker about 17-18 years ago because colleges were using income statistics to exclude lower-income students. "That would be a tremendous benefit for us, that would be the very best thing that could happen," Parker said. He noted that the ACT has already allowed colleges to identify students by income and the College is searching for and contacting students through direct mailings after they've been identified.
Professor of Economics Geoffrey Woglom mentioned the College's existing commitment to its current students. "It would be nice to believe that this is going to be a costless initiative, and it may be. But what I'm considered about it is may also have some costs, and the cost I'm concerned about it is may change academic excellence. In the economics departments we're having trouble," he said. Woglom added that he felt adding 15-25 academic three's would further strain the faculty's ability to help already struggling students. "Are we in fact serving the students that we [already] bring here? We need to assess that as well."
Faculty also discussed the problem of adjustment for lower-income students on campus. Parker mentioned that the College's financial aid package considers such concerns and includes two round-trip plane tickets and a stipend for dorm furnishings. Additional suggestions from faculty included strengthening the advisor system and increasing financial aid to be used for example for more trips to visit home.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Scott Kaplan questioned the pace at which the CAP's recommendations would be implemented. "We're talking about potentially very major changes in what we're doing, how we do it and why we're doing it. And I hate to rush that … Does it all have to happen this semester?" he asked. The discussion ended with the nature of the faculty's approval of the report.
Earlier in the meeting during remarks by the president, Marx addressed faculty concerns about the Schupf Scholars Program that had been raised during the Dec. 6 Meeting of the Faculty. Marx explained to faculty what had been discussed with the Committee of Six and Schupf himself such as the decision to provide flexibility in what Schupf scholars could research.
Following Marx's remarks, Dean of the Faculty Gregory Call announced that Professor of French Paul Rockwell would be serving as Dean of New Students during current Dean of New Students and Associate Professor of Psychology Allen Hart's sabbatical next year. Call also noted that Hart would return as dean for three more years.