In this report we have attempted to create an agenda for Carleton for the early years of the twenty-first century. We enter this period as an exceptionally strong and purposeful institution, but we must also recognize that liberal higher education is facing immense challenges. If Carleton is to become even stronger, which may very well be necessary if we hope to adhere to our stated mission and purposes, we must identify and resolve both the internal and external issues affecting us. The recommendations we make in this report to the College are intended to place these critical issues squarely before us. They include a broad range of human, programmatic, and physical resource concerns, all of which we consider to be important and deserving of attention. Our list could easily have been longer, but we made every effort to limit it to an agenda that could be managed within a decade.

While we consider all the recommendations to be important, they cannot be addressed simultaneously. Sequencing will be necessary. We consider the following recommendations to be of sufficient urgency to merit immediate consideration next year:

• Increase significantly our pool of talented, diverse applicants
• Provide more coordination and oversight of the curriculum by creating a programs and curriculum committee to advise the Dean of the College on decisions related to the academic program
• Review decision-making processes and improve communication
• Begin planning for the first two facilities projects, but only after developing a long-range maintenance plan and integrating that plan into the ten facilities recommendations

Addressing these issues will require time, but as we all know, there isn't room in our lives for more. We suggest that, in order to move ahead with the recommendations and still achieve balanced, sustainable lives, people apply a "zero sum" test and let go of an existing responsibility before adding something new. The challenge, therefore, will be to encourage experimentation and change without overloading ourselves or the system. Success will require institutional, individual, and departmental commitment to letting go of less essential demands on our time in order to free us to work on new initiatives. We might ask, "What should be dropped in order to try this exciting idea?" rather than say, "this is important, but there just isn't time." The world, including higher education, is in the midst of accelerating changes. For example, our whole orientation toward the educational process, from pre-school through graduate and professional school, is being transformed from a teaching-centered to a learning-centered model. Carleton has been a leader for many years in this movement and we must sustain the flexibility and capacity for change that will keep us in the forefront of liberal learning. Experimentation and risk-taking should be encouraged and rewarded.

The next steps are up to you, the students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees, parents, and friends of Carleton. Each recommendation requires that individuals, committees, or other groups take up the issue, look into it more fully, and bring forth a more detailed proposal for action. Energy and commitment will be needed to carry out this work, but, based on the exceptional level of dedication and loyalty we have witnessed over the past nine months, we are confident that the job will be done.