Approval of minutes. A portion of the minutes for the meeting of May 26, 2004 were distributed for information, but not proposed for approval.

President Brody thanked Professors Eaton Lattman, Toby Ditz, Gerald Masson and Michael Williams for their service on the Academic Council.

Remarks by the Secretary. Professor Ditz thanked Dean Falk for his work on the tenure policy documents.

Open Discussion. A Council member asked about the status of the engineering dean search. President Brody said he would turn the question over to Provost Knapp after he made his remarks.

Remarks by the Chair. President Brody thanked Council for another great year. He said that the University is doing well, with all divisions on budget, or doing better than budget, despite cuts in revenue streams from endowment income being down and from State aid being down. President Brody said that a major worry was the tuition level. Irrespective of the affordability issue and arguments about net costs, that is, tuition minus financial aid, President Brody opined that it is an increasing lightening rod for the general public. The President said he thought the commencement ceremonies went well, and for the first time he received no adverse comments. He added that fund raising is going well, though raising money for buildings is a challenge. President Brody then turned the discussion over to Provost Knapp.

Provost Knapp said that the search for an engineering dean is still on-going. The search committee had expected to be a little further along than they are at this stage.

A Council member commented that the endowment available to the Krieger School is comparatively small and asked President Brody for his long-term thoughts about addressing that. President Brody replied that if you look at universities that compete comparably, their finances are totally different. He noted that some revenue streams that Hopkins enjoys are not counted; for example, Hopkins gets a management fee for the Applied Physics Laboratory, the bulk of which is used for the library. Also, part-time programs provide support. President Brody suggested that the general model of higher education is unsustainable without endowment or other revenue sources since, in a macro sense, true expenses rise faster than median family income. If you look at the ratio of tuition sticker price to any commodity over the last twenty, thirty, forty or fifty years, tuition has gone up much faster. He opined that there are a half a dozen universities that can survive on the endowment they have, but the rest of the universities are in a situation similar to Hopkins. This means that fundraising is a bigger and bigger part of the Deans offices.

Provost Knapp added that an important difference at Hopkins is that the schools keep their revenues, that is, all our fundraising is at the divisional level. President Brody added that one other argument is that because of our decentralized structure, the critical resource allocation decisions are made at a much lower level, and they are made to optimize the individual schools. However, it is not completely clear that this makes us operate more efficiently overall.

President Brody concluded by saying that he had just come from the press conference kicking off the Baltimore Scholars Program. This will provide full tuition for any student who graduates from any Baltimore City School and is accepted to Hopkins. The student and his parents must have been residents of the City for three years previous to graduation.

The appointment of Dr. Chikako Mese as tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics effective July 1, 2004 was approved.

The appointment of Dr. Caterina Consani as tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics effective July 1, 2004 was approved.

The promotion of Dr. Justin Hanes to the rank of Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering effective July 1, 2004 was approved.

The appointment of Dr. Michael Koortbojian as Professor in the Department of History of Art with secondary appointment in Classics effective July 1, 2005 was approved.

The promotion of Dr. Yair Amir to Professor in the Department of Computer Science effective July 1, 2004 was approved.

The Council turned to further consideration of proposed revisions of the Appointment and Promotion Procedures and Transition Procedures. Dean Falk reminded Council that the new tenure regulations were approved at the last meeting. Some issues raised by the General Counsel were put aside for next year, such as the language on dismissal for just cause and for financial exigency. The key change to the procedures is to remove the departmental representative from the ad hoc committee and replace some of that function with a liaison who will be a resource for the committee in identifying referees and in interpreting aspects of the field. The liaison would be someone from the department, either the chair or chair's designee, but the liaison would not participate in writing the ad hoc committee report. Referring to the handout on the table, Dean Falk said that at the last meeting the description of the role of the liaison was reworked and a revision was made to the language by which the referees are informed as to who will see the letters. After some discussion, it was decided that the referees would be told that only those directly involved in the promotion process will see the responses.

The next point that was brought up was the length of time given to the ad hoc committees. A Council member said that most average 3 - 4 months. It was agreed that a three-month deadline was more appropriate than two months. Another Council member recalled that Council had talked about the fact that some other institutions offer considerably more administrative support to the evaluation process than does Hopkins.

After some discussion recalling Council's earlier agreement to review and evaluate the entire procedure in two years, a motion approving the Appointment and Promotion Procedures as amended passed with ten in favor and one opposed.

Dean Falk then turned to the transition document and reviewed the major features of the proposed procedures. In the course of this it was noted that when the new procedures are approved, the old procedures are no longer applicable, even for a transition case being considered under the old system

Dean Falk said that eligibility for voting in the department is the next topic for discussion. A Council member suggested that during the transition period only full professors should vote on tenure cases, saying that the concern was about creating unnecessary tension within departments by having tenured associate professors voting on tenured full professor cases that are proceeding under the old system during the transition. Provost Knapp commented that Council does not have rules that govern departmental voting, though we could think about whose vote counts at the Council level. Dean Falk observed that in Arts and Sciences there are no cases where this situation will arise, and it was decided to leave the issue at rest.

Dean Falk summarized the proposed changes to the transition document, and a motion approving the changes passed unanimously.

A Council member proposed that Council collect data and examine the new procedures in 2005. A discussion ensued about the length of time the new procedures should be in place before examining them. Another Council member moved that starting in the Fall the Council immediately discuss appropriate procedures for collecting information about how well the new promotion system is functioning. He said that the faculty and especially the department chairs have expressed uneasiness about the changes, and this motion would ease concerns of the faculty. The motion was approved. He then moved that Council conduct a formal review of the new system in two years, citing similar considerations. That motion also was approved.

Dean Falk commented that in the future the Council bylaws need to be cleaned up. Other issues that were postponed are the language about financial exigency in the tenure documents, the language about dismissal for just cause, and the appeals procedures. Finally, there remains the issue of the composition and election of Council. Provost Knapp suggested that Council subcommittees take up some of these issues.

The Council then turned to consideration of proposal for Master of Science degree in Bioscience Regulatory Affairs in Advanced Academic Programs.

As the appointed Council member was not prepared to report on the proposal, Provost Knapp suggested considering the proposal by e-mail. A Council member commented that he had seen the initial document, and he thought it could easily be handled by e-mail. Council unanimously approved voting on the proposal by e-mail. One of the Council members asked about the composition of the advisory committee, noting that it included only one Homewood faculty member. Dean Falk said that these advanced academic programs typically have advisory committees drawn from the constituencies that the programs are meant to serve. The advisory committee is meant to bring in expertise that is not in the department.

The Council turned to consideration of proposed revisions to 1) Deans' letter to Chairs requesting self-study, and 2) Procedures for Departmental Reviews.

A Council member said that at an evening meeting there was a discussion about adding language to the Deans' memo to department chairs requesting the self-study, and two Council members had prepared a draft. In subsequent discussion, it was agreed to leave the review procedures document unchanged, but modify the draft memo to emphasize the importance of affirmative action activities and to encourage the provision of quantitative data to support qualitative conclusions in the self-study.

Provost Knapp announced that the Secretaries for 2004/2005 will be Professors Douglas Poland and Benjamin Hobbs, and the Recorders will be Professors Paul Feldman and Ali Khan.

The Deans were authorized to make non-tenure track and Assistant Professor appointments over the summer effective June 3, 2004.

Remarks by the Deans. Dean Weiss thanked the Council for an excellent year of very hard work, especially on the tenure policy issue, but on other matters as well. He opined that it was a very productive year.

Dean Douglas added his thanks to the Council.

The meeting adjourned at 5:37 p.m.

© 2004 The Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore, Maryland. All rights reserved.
Last updated 22Sep04 by dgips@jhu.edu