Don Bowers, Fran DiRosa, Barbara Spadaro, Ji Gao, Judy Davidson, Sharon Thompson, Kathy Smith.

The meeting began with several announcements including the following:

• The restructuring of the Documentation Committees into a single committee led by Dennis McGrath and Ralph Faris. The role of the Documentation Committee was also reviewed.
• A brief report on the Town Meeting held last week.
• The Middle States Website is up and running and is linked to the College's staff page
• The due date for the submission of the committee reports remains May 1, 2003
• Action Plans should be submitted by mid-November.

Meeting Minutes: We reviewed the need to keep and submit minutes of all committee meetings which should then be emailed to Sharon and / or Kathy for posting to the Middle States website.

Survey requests: We reviewed the need to submit any requests for surveys by mid-November to Sharon and Kathy. The Steering Committee will compile the requests and the Office of Institutional Advancement will design and send out surveys so that data can be timely received for review and inclusion by each committee.

Need for additional members: Any requests for additional member should be emailed to Sharon and Kathy. If additional members are needed to replace non-participating members, it was requested that those non-participants be identified so that a balance of membership according to discipline and diversity can be maintained in appointing replacements.

Writing of the report: Questions were raised regarding the length of the final report and the mechanics of accomplishing the writing. Sharon and Kathy will get back to the committee chairs regarding the length, although it was advised that the committees not be overly concerned with exceeding a certain page limit because the committee reports will be revised to ensure that the report in its entirety reads in the same voice.

Committee Progress: Co-chairs then informally discussed how their committees have been proceeding and their progress. This aspect of the meeting led to a discussion concerning the overlap in the content of the charges of the committees. It was agreed that although the committees will likely be reviewing many of the same resources, the perspectives of the committees differs. Nonetheless, it was also agreed that the next and subsequent meetings of the Institutional Context Committee should include a consideration of the substance of the committee work to ensure that the distinction among the committees remain clear.

Future IC Meetings: It was agreed that the IC Committee will meet twice more during the semester and that Shelley Nowlin will be in touch regarding scheduling.