7.A trial may be implemented with merit scholars and a subset of faculty. I submit that a means for accomplishing all of this, with little or no additional cost, is to change the way we do things, in particular, to increase the flexibility of the delivery of academics while challenging students to take much more responsibility for their own education. I believe we can do this by adapting old-world tutoring methods. The broad liberal education we want for our students, broader than most of us as individuals can reliably guide, can be provided by teams of faculty, among whom should be found adequate resourcefulness. Whether or not any of this is true, efforts to test out alternatives encounter numerous administrative obstacles, from credit allocation to contact hour counting.
Success is measurable, as described in the action steps above.
As indicated, the education of students would occur by interactions with a team of faculty members who serve as tutors, counselors, advisors. The student is responsible for passing certain competency exams covering the basic skills defined as important by the collected faculties. He or she would then have to demonstrate competency in one or maybe two concentrations by passing the equivalent of qualifying exams developed and graded by others besides the members of the team, although some of these may be included. After that, she or he would have to prepare and defend a thesis. This approach affords maximal flexibility to faculty, who would be evaluated on the success rates of their tutees and how these latter view the formers' efforts.