Charge: We discussed which of the following issues we should address: length of calendar (weeks), graduation requirements, contact minutes/course, contact minutes/graduation, scheduling of breaks, units vs. credit hours, and curriculum structure. We decided that the first four issues were within our charge, but that the last three were not. In particular, we decided not to use the calendar question as a vehicle to study broader issues such as units vs. credit hours, but to try to stick closely to the assigned task.

Comparison set of schools: The SACS requirement says only that our requirements must be "appropriate"; we decided that this standard could be addressed best by examining requirements from other schools and seeing how we compare. We discussed which schools would make the best comparison set at some length; possibilities included schools from ELCA, VFIC, the SACS accrediting region, and other schools that fall outside these groups but are often considered as peers. We thought that a sample of 25-40 schools would be sufficient, and finally decided that Dan would talk to Greg about other possible considerations and construct a tentative list.

We also decided that we would try to contact these schools with a written or phone survey over the summer and have most of our data ready to analyze by or shortly after the beginning of the fall semester.