Remarks by the Chair. The President spoke to the Council about the political situation in Annapolis and how budget cuts might affect Johns Hopkins.

Discussion of the Tenure Policy Review. Dean Weiss asked Council for their reaction to the Tenure Policy Review Committee's report and the letter written by Deans Busch-Vishniac, Douglas, Falk and Weiss. He said that on March 20 the Tenure Policy Review Committee's report will be discussed at the Faculty Assembly meeting. Dean Busch-Vishniac added that the committee spent almost eighteen months working on this and they did a nice job. A discussion ensued weighing the strengths of the current system and strengths of a revised system. How tenure is handled in other schools within Johns Hopkins and at other universities was also discussed. Dean Weiss said that a town meeting will be organized and the Deans will report back to Council.

Remarks by the Secretary. Professor Kingsland reported that the evening meeting on March 11 was devoted to the discussion of the procedures of the Graduate Board Orals, focusing on the make-up of the examination committees. Deans Douglas and Falk were guests at the meeting. They gave a run-down on how the departments in the two Homewood schools viewed the orals. For the majority of departments the current system seems to work quite well, but there are a number of departments, including those that produce highly technical dissertations, where more flexibility in choosing examiners might help to produce a more rigorous exam. The main concern in reviewing the GBO procedures was to ensure that the exam was a meaningful exercise. The Graduate Board is reviewing the exam procedures. Discussion of the subject is reported in the Graduate Board meeting minutes of November 27, 2002, which were included in the packets for today's meeting, under "comments from the chair". The conclusion at the evening meeting was that if the Graduate Board recommends any change in the current system, the proposal should be sent to Council for further discussion.

Professor Kingsland said that Council members should have received a copy of a letter from the faculty of the Political Science Department written to Dean Weiss, giving their views of the recent draft report from the Commission on Undergraduate Education. The letter was sent to Council from Professor Richard Katz as an information item, not for discussion, to let Council know how the faculty of this department felt. A copy of the letter was also sent to Dr. Paula Burger.

Professor Kingsland asked for suggested topics for discussion at the evening meeting on April 8. Open Discussion. Professor Ball directed Council members' attention to an information item from the Curriculum Committee. The Joint Curriculum Committee is preparing some new recommendations on ethics. They discussed and had some disagreement about the "two strikes and you're out" policy. Professor Ball asked if the Council would like to advise the Curriculum Committee on this.

Professor Ball reported that there is a change in the Constitution of the Ethics Board. He suggested that this be made an agenda item for the April 2 meeting.

Professor Kingsland drew the Council's attention to certain ambiguities in the draft document entitled Policy on Conflict of Commitment and Conflict of Interest for the Homewood Schools.

The appointment of Dr. Jane Bennett as Professor in the Department of Political Science effective July 1, 2004 was approved.

The promotion of Dr. Lori Graham-Brady to Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering effective July 1, 2003 was approved.

Professor Lattman, Chair of the Appointments and Promotions subcommittee reported that the following appointments were approved: 1) Manorama Maheshwari as Lecturer, part-time, in the Language Teaching Center for 7/1/03-6/30/04; 2) Dr. Alain Molinari as Visiting Professor in Mechanical Engineering for 6/25/03-7/25/03; 3) Florin Spinu as Assistant Professor in Mathematics effective 7/1/03; 4) Nero Budur as the J.J. Sylvester Assistant Professor in Mathematics for the three year period 7/1/03 - 6/30/06; 5) Jason Howald as Lecturer in Mathematics for 7/1/03 - 6/30/04; 6) Dr. Bruno Jedynak as Visiting Associate Professor in Mathematical Sciences for 9/1/03 - 8/30/05.

The meeting adjourned at 5:25 p.m.

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Last updated 08Sep03 by dgips@jhu.edu