The CLASS initiative is still very much a vision; very few concrete details exist at this point. Even nomenclature has yet to be worked out in any detail—the clusters may eventually be called anything from residential academies to neighborhoods, and no consistent titles have been worked out for the new dean positions. The actual responsibilities and interactions of all these figures are also currently very vague and will be topics of ongoing discussion for a long time to come.
Actual deadlines for the various phases of the plan to be completed also aren’t firm yet. Many aspects were incorporated into the draft of the Fiscal Year 2010 Student Life Performance Plan that Knowles presented to the student body Monday. Admissions representatives have also begun to inform prospective students of the two-year residency requirement. Beyond that, however, there are very few aspects that aren’t flexible with respect to the CLASS implementation timeline.
Even the draft hiring schedule that was approved by the Board of Trustees has been cast into doubt by the suffering economy. The financial crisis has driven the Institute to defer to contingency budgets for the current fiscal year and a hiring freeze has made it impossible to proceed with some of the initial staffing plans.
Knowles said he is attempting to get approval to continue searches for certain key positions, such as a new dean for Residence Life. Until some restrictions are lifted, however, it will be necessary to postpone much of the planning and implementation process.
