Preparatory to developing a core curriculum with the possibility of instituting a tracking system, the Committee on Undergraduate Medical Education at the University of Connecticut Health Center appointed a committee that set out to find a systematic way of looking at the curriculum. The committee developed a personal-political approach and research methodology in which an educator involved faculty members in writing and reviewing educational goals and objectives (affective, cognitive, and psychomotor). The performance standards developed by the 24 teaching committees were rated by the teaching faculty (for clarity and importance) and will subsequently be reviewed for relevance by other faculty groups. They will be published and will serve as the basis for the evaluation of student performance. Meanwhile, the day-to-day benefit of this systematic definition of curriculum may be far more important to the institution than the original purpose. (JT)