1990s: "The Symposium" and aftermath ===
In 1993, the Bennington College Board of Trustees initiated a process known as "The Symposium". Arguing that the college suffered from "a growing attachment to the status quo that, if unattended, is lethal to Bennington's purpose and pedagogy", the board of trustees "solicit[ed] ... concerns and proposals on a wide and open-ended range of issues from every member of the faculty, every student, every staff member, every alumna and alumnus, and dozens of friends of the College." According to the trustees, the process was intended to reinvent the college, and the board said it received over 600 contributions to this end.
The results of the process were published in June 1994 in a 36-page document titled Symposium Report of the Bennington College Board of Trustees. Recommended changes included the following:
Adoption of a "teacher-practitioner" ideal;
Abandonment of academic divisions in favor of "polymorphous, dynamically changing Faculty Program Groups";
Replacement of …
