Nip/Tuck

By Kelly Chordas '11

The plan process can be a confusing, frustrating aspect of life at Bennington College.

But beginning in the fall term of 2010, incoming first years will have it just a little bit easier with the implementation of several changes to the process. While still contingent on its final approval, the changes are the result of a nearly 3-year review of the plan process at Bennington in an effort to clarify the process for both faculty and students. The in-depth review consulted a variety of sources in order to best represent what is the core of a Bennington education.

“We consulted historic documents, including those of the founders, the Symposium, and previous Academic Policies Committees. In addition, we consulted with individual faculty and the discipline groups, students from SEPC, our advisees, admissions, staff from the Provost and Deans office, and the President.” Robert Ransick, the chair of the Academic Policy Committee (APC), says.

The result is a detailed proposal that attempts to address some of the aspects of the plan process that have caused incidents of confusion and some difficulties for many Bennington students and faculty members. Rather than change the plan, however, the revision strives to explain best how to use the unique approach to higher education. “The changes really do preserve the spirit of the plan,” Ransick says. “It’s still all there.”

Prior to this current revision, there had not been any one written document that had outlined the plan process in detail. According to Ransick, this lack of a cohesive document sometimes made the plan process unclear and left some students and faculty unsure of what was expected. With the introduction of this proposal, it would ideally give the best-case scenario for any Bennington student heading into designing his or her time and education here.

The new proposal is designed to depict the evolution of a student’s plan over the course of four-years at Bennington. In this proposed change, the plan process is broken down by terms. Within each of these term outlines, it clarifies the expectations of what changes a student should accomplish with his or her plan within that span of the term.

The suggested revisions also propose the implementation of a system of student portfolios to be maintained. These portfolios are contingent on the creation of an electronic portfolio system, that, if implemented, would require students to create and to maintain a portfolio of work while at Bennington including the first-year essay, Plan essay, and revisions as well as examples of both academic and creative works.

Other changes in the proposal includes a stronger emphasis for a student to title his or her plan; the document outlines that a working title should be created for the original proposal with a final title being decided in the 6th term. The revisions also include the possibility for another plan meeting during a student’s 5th term, if the student has significantly changed their goals or is not successfully meeting the goals outlined in their original plan proposal. There is also a de-emphasis of discipline guidelines in favor of more broadly defined expectations of a Bennington Education.

For the May 9 coffee hour minutes, a draft of the proposal was attached for the review by the general student population. While the proposed plan changes will not impact the studies of current Bennington students, they are encouraged to review the documents that outline the proposed changes to the plan process. In addition, a campus-wide coffee hour was held by SEPC to explain and to discuss the changes outlined.

However, this proposed change to the plan process is not mean to be a permanent, one-time change. Like many students’ plans, the redesign of the plan process will most likely evolve as it is needed. “It’s a living document. It’s not set in stone,” Ransick says. There is still some room for change.