Faculty, staff and students are invited to learn--and speak their minds--about an evolving new master plan for the Homewood campus next week at the first in a series of "town hall"-style meetings.

President William R. Brody, Provost Steven Knapp and the Homewood deans will be joined by architects from Ayers/Saint/Gross in laying out what has happened since the planning process began last spring. They will also discuss what will happen between now and publication of the final plan in May.

The meeting will be held in Arellano Theater from noon to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 30. Participants are invited to bring their lunches.

Ayers/Saint/Gross, the Baltimore firm that is leading campus leaders and constituencies through the planning process, will discuss the principles that are guiding the effort. The architects will also unveil "first draft" proposals for dealing with such issues as campus ambience, pedestrian and vehicular traffic, natural systems such as trees and water, sites for future buildings, parking, the relationship between the campus and surrounding neighborhoods and many others.

Participants will be asked to react, either at the town meeting or later through e-mail links at the project's Web site, www.jhu.edu/masterplan.

The university expects the plan that emerges from discussions like this one to guide the physical development of Homewood for decades. Brody said this town meeting will be the first of three to five to be held at Homewood every year. Similar sessions at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, he said, have been useful in improving the flow of information between JHMI leadership and the faculty, students and staff there.