October 23, 1981

To: School Deans, Division Heads, Department Chairs
From: President Gail Fullerton
Subject: Committee on the Future

The attached letter from Trustee August Coppola, Chair of the Committee on the Future, and the schedule of its visit to San José State University should be self-explanatory.

The Committee will visit San José State on October 29 and 30. Please circulate Trustee Coppola's letter and the schedule as widely as possible so that all members of the campus community will know of the Committee's visit and where and when they may participate in the Committee's deliberations.

Thank you.

GF:ea

Enclosures

Dr. Gail Fullerton, President
San José State University
Washington Square
San José, California 95192

Dear President Fullerton:

The Committee on the Future has scheduled its visit to your campus. This time together has been designed in a format to seek as many imaginative, creative ideas as possible about our mutual futures. As with any pioneers going into unknown territory, we are looking for those provisions that will allow our educational values to survive. We are not simply planning for the future, but, in this pioneering spirit, we hope to provision for the future by pre-visioning what lies ahead, hence, Directions 2000.

Most important is that we do not come to discuss the governance or administrative structure of your university or of the system. We do not plan to engage in reviews of fiscal, procedural or political problems or constraints. We come to discuss the “future perfect,” the year 2000 and what will have had to have happened as possible antecedents in the year 1990.

The Committee on the Future is interested in meeting with representatives of all constituencies on your campus during its two day visit, and in hearing from the many who do not ordinarily involve themselves in its structures. To facilitate our dialogue, we request that you form a complement committee consisting of yourself, the faculty senate chair, the student body president, an advisory board or alumni association member and a member of the administration or staff you choose to designate as one normally interested in long-range planning. This group can inform the campus community about the kinds of questions being considered, serving as both “earpersons” and “spokespersons” for various constituencies.

Enclosed is a full and rich schedule to permit the calling forth of ideas. The process in which we will engage together is that of open dialogue. We hope that, although we will come among you as strangers, we will leave you as kin and friends. Members of the community who have been involved in our dialogue may con?tinue to reflect on dreams, visions and alternatives, transmitting their ideas to our group by-way of the complement committee.

Some of the Committee's visits will be early in the year, which permits time for reflection and contin?uation of the dialogue. Others will occur later, allowing time for prior campus deliberation and con?sultation.

We know that the label of 'dreamers' may seem vague, but the process is very real. Dreaming is that expe?rience by which we become aware of possibilities and alternatives, and even contexts within which missions or plans can evolve. One can wish matters to be different, but unlike dreaming, wishing will hardly uncover the rich range of values and options.

We're looking forward to meeting with you and your colleagues. The meeting ground of people listening and speaking with each other is the best stimulation for creativity. That is our greatest provision for pre-visioning what is unknown and common to us all, the world we must ultimately all live in: the future.

With foresight,
August Coppola
Chair, Committee on the Future
AC: ew

Enclosures (4)
cc:
Dr. Robert Kully
Mr. Harry Harmon
Mr. Paul Cashman
Chancellor Glenn S. Dumke
Ms. Josie Jack
Committee Members
Mr. John O'Connell

Visitation Team:
Mr. Patrick Connors
Dr. August Coppola
Dr. Peter Diamandopoulos
Dr. Claudia Hampton
Dr. Kibbey Horne
Dr. Gary Shaw
Dr. Kathleen Kies, Staff

Committee On Future Direction 2000

Campus Visit Schedule

A Calling Forth of Ideas

Evening 5:00 p.m.
Committee arrival; dine together as a group; planning for visit.

Day 1

8:00 a.m.
Breakfast; drive to campus.

* 9:00 a.m.
Meet with members of complement committee (president, faculty senate chair, student body president, advisory board or alumni association member, member of administration of staff designated as normally interested in long-range planning) to share brief statement of Committee on the Future's goals and processes, brief state?ment on the state of the campus, begin dialogue.

* 10:30 a.m.
Campus presentation of its own unique qualities, its dreams, its relationship to a unique community.

12:00 p.m.
Lunch, with complement committee; pairings to be arranged so that campus members and visitors can interact with one another regarding personal dreams of the future; second pairing to continue process.

* 2:30 p.m.
Open Forum of the Future -- an opportunity for any member of the campus community who chooses to explore ideas, dreams, visions with the Committee on the Future. If possible, participants are urged to follow up with a written reflection of their visions. Microphones should be available for speakers as well as for recording this session.

5:00 p.m.
Break

* 6:30 p.m.
Dinner -- complement committee might invite those members of the campus community who they feel will be particularly interested in continuing the discussion of creative and imaginative ideas in a relaxed setting.

8:00 a.m.
Breakfast; drive to campus.

9:00 a.m.
Six open dialogues on Directions 2000 (one member of the Committee will participate in each) -- size to be determined by location, designed to accommodate as many of the campus community as choose to participate.

10:30 a.m.
Second series of six open dialogues.

12:00 p.m.
Lunch -- buffet, with three tables for eight persons each. Two members of the Committee will be at each table; others to be self-selected from among those who have engaged in morning dialogues.

1:30 p.m.
walking tour of campus; seeing the host environment of the dreams.

* 2:00 p.m.
Review and synthesis of findings by the complement committee and the Committee on the Future.

3:00 p.m.
Committee on the Future meets as a group.

4:00 p.m.
Departure

* Asterisked sessions should be tape recorded, if possible photographed.

This schedule should be publicized in all available campus organs; everyone is invited to present visions to the Committee on the Future, either in group sessions or in writing.

Committee On the Future Direction 2000

Some Starting Points

Michelangelo once said that you had to see the statue inside the stone and then begin chipping away. These generic questions from members of the Committee on the Future are perhaps like that -- but instead of chipping away, you might just look inside the questions, and then begin imagining the world that could be built around them.

What will reality be like in the year 2000? What will ideals be like then?

What will be the role of the University inadapting to and/or shaping both personal and social demands of the twenty-first century?

What do you envision as the state of knowledge in structure, quantity and quality?

What kinds of teaching, in what settings, by what means will be required by both teachers and students, given the conditions of the year 2000, to promote learning experiences?

What will be the expectations of students and their future prospects, motivationally and professionally, in the twenty-first century?

What will be the community's view or image of the University in the twenty-first century?