Remarks by the Secretary. Professor Ditz reminded Council of the lunches with junior faculty and of the evening meeting on Tuesday, February 10. At the evening meeting she suggested briefly talking about basic points to cover at the lunches with untenured faculty. Another topic for discussion would be to discuss the Academic Affairs Subcommittee's work on departmental self studies, in particular additional information to require in the self-studies. She reported that Professor Meredith Williams has agreed to come to the evening meeting on March 9 to discuss the departmental review system at Northwestern University.

Professor Ditz gave a brief report at the Faculty Assembly on Tuesday, February 3. Twenty to thirty people attended the meeting. At the meeting there was a suggestion to post the proposal for changes to the tenure policy and procedures on the Academic Council website. After some discussion it was agreed that a better approach would be to have faculty ask Sally Marcin for copies of the proposal.

A Council member commented that the Academic Council website is under the News and Information web site, and is hard to find. Dean Falk suggested that the Council site should be linked from the Information for Faculty page, and Council agreed. The Provost commented that Council members could e-mail suggestions for improving the organization of our web resources to him, and he would forward them to the appropriate person.

Open Discussion. A Council member complimented Professor Ditz on the minutes she wrote for the January 20th meeting with department chairs. It was agreed that faculty e-mails to Council members about the proposed changes in the tenure procedures be forwarded to Sally Marcin to collect.

Vice Dean Gary Ostrander joined the meeting to discuss Graduate Board Oral committee composition. He said that historically the Graduate Board Oral committee was composed of two inside members and three outside members. Last June the proposal was brought to Council to ask permission for each department to choose to have their GBO committees comprise either two inside and three outside, or three inside and two outside examiners. Council approved this policy in September. When the Graduate Board began to implement the policy, they found that the departments wanted to have the flexibility to decide this balance on a case-by-case basis. Dean Ostrander gave examples from various departments to illustrate the advantages of this flexibility, and stated that the Graduate Board is now in favor of permitting the case-by-case selection. When asked about how to handle interdepartmental and interdivisional graduate programs, Dean Ostrander said it was difficult to develop a policy that would work for every interdisciplinary degree, and that he thought that the students and faculty are best served by allowing for as much flexibility as reasonably possible. One of the Council members noted that for final GBO's, as opposed to preliminary GBO's, the oversight function becomes more important. Dean Ostrander said that this issue was part of a lively discussion, and there was a wide range of views. It comes down to a balancing act of what is more important, and the Graduate Board now favors the flexibility of the case-by-case proposal. Dean Ostrander left the meeting.

There followed a discussion about who decides the composition of the committee that ended with agreement that this was a departmental issue since the Department Chair signs the request for a GBO. It was noted that cultures would probably develop in each department. Dean Falk said that departments have the right to have more restrictive policies that are consistent with the general policy. It was suggested that Dean Ostrander remind departments that they are free to set up a more restrictive policy if they so desire. A motion approving the proposal was passed.

The promotion of Dr. Timothy Weihs to the rank of Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering effective July 1, 2004 was approved.

The Council then considered a policy for granting non-resident status to WSE Master's degree students that was proposed by the Whiting School Graduate Committee. Dean Douglas said that the policy was designed to impose a clear time limit. After review by the Council's subcommittee on Academic Affairs it was presented with amended language for the Council's approval. The amended proposal was approved.

The Council then turned to further consideration of the proposal for changes to the tenure policy and procedures for their implementation. Dean Falk reminded Council that the last discussion was on what the relation of the ad hoc committee and the department should be. He presented a document containing the proposed language as well as some possible amendments, stating, however, that he was not in favor of any of the amendments. After lengthy discussion of issues of independence of ad hoc committees in relation to the contributions of departmental representatives or liaisons, a motion was made to adopt the paragraph drafted by Dean Falk on the departmental liaison without including any of the amendments listed. The motion passed.

Dean Falk suggested that the numbers and sources of letters be the next issue to be discussed in Council deliberations of the promotion procedures.

Remarks by the Chair. The Provost recalled that at the January 7 meeting it was decided to separate the visits to Council of the ad hoc committee chair and the department chair. After further discussion it was decided to have the department chair come into the meeting followed by the ad hoc committee chair. The department chair would be asked to wait outside until after the ad hoc chair spoke, in case further questions arose.

Remarks by the Deans. Dean Weiss reported that there was a memorandum from the Deans about the administration of final exams in the package of materials for today's meeting. He reviewed major points in the memorandum, including the points that final examination dates are not negotiable with the students and final exams are not to be given during the reading period or on the last day of class. In response to questions about the distribution of the memorandum, Dean Weiss said that it would be circulated widely to the community.

Dean Douglas announced that the undergraduate part-time program in engineering is going to be closed. This is motivated by decreasing enrollment and the need to focus on the part-time programs for professional engineers seeking masters degrees. When asked about transition plans for closing the undergraduate part-time programs, Dean Douglas replied that anyone in the program now, or ready to join by September, will be able to go through the four years required to graduate.

The meeting adjourned at 5:28 p.m.

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Last updated 20Feb04 by dgips@jhu.edu