Approval of minutes. The minutes for the meeting of December 3, and December 17, 2003 were approved as amended.

Remarks by the Secretary. Professor Lattman reported that quite a few junior faculty members have expressed interest in having lunch with Council members. An e-mail with the luncheon dates will go out within a few days to junior faculty and to Council members.

Professor Lattman reminded Council of the evening meeting on Tuesday, January 13, and of the meeting on Tuesday, January 20, with the Department Chairs in the Board Room of Hodson Hall to discuss the proposal for changes to the tenure policy and procedures.

Open Discussion. A Council member said that as liaison to an ad hoc committee he was asked if it was allowable for the ad hoc committee to send to referees a different curriculum vita than was used for internal purposes, for example a c.v. that does not have all the teaching and service information on it. A discussion ensued about the motivation for doing this. When one of the Council members suggested that the choice of c.v. to be sent out should be left to the candidate, the other Council members agreed.

A Council member noted that in a discussion after the tenure policy meeting that Dean Falk had with the Engineering Department Chairs, a Department Chair suggested an immediate change to having the ad hoc committee chair and the department chair come to Council separately to discuss appointment and promotion cases. The Provost noted that page 5 of the procedures states only that each will appear before Council. Council members unanimously approved changing the procedure so that the department chair addresses Council first and then the ad hoc committee chair.

A Council member said that one of his colleagues raised the issue of plans to change policy on summer independent study. At present, summer independent study does not require tuition. Changing the policy raises a complicated set of issues, and the Council member expressed concern that it would discourage students from doing research. Dean Falk commented that there are some glaring inequities with the way tuition currently is charged for different kinds of academic experiences. He added that much more discussion would occur before changing the current policy. Dean Burger is going to discuss this with the Directors of Undergraduate Studies and they are checking to see how peer institutions handle the issue. Dean Weiss added that there are equity, academic, and financial issues. President Brody suggested looking at the issue holistically, noting that intersession courses did not require tuition. President Brody observed that one approach to these matters would be to fix tuition for four years when a student enters freshman year.

The Council then turned to further consideration of the proposal for changes to the tenure policy and procedures for their implementation.

Because of timing issues with Board of Trustees' consideration of proposed changes in tenure policy, Dean Weiss suggested presentation of the substance of the proposal to the Academic Affairs committee of the Board in March. This would yield feedback, and also prepare them for the formal proposal. Council members supported this idea.

Dean Douglas said that the biggest issue in discussions with the Whiting School Chairs was the confidentiality of draft documents. The Chairs felt that it limited their discussion of the proposal. He added that Biomedical Engineering presents an interesting situation because some faculty members have appointments in the School of Medicine and some in the School of Engineering. The School of Medicine tenures at the full professor level, so the proposed change would create a split in the Biomedical Engineering faculty.

It was reported that the following appointments have been approved by the Appointments and Promotions subcommittee: 1) Dr. Nicholas Panasik as Lecturer in Biophysics for 12/16/03 - 6/15/04. 2) Dr. Sharlyn Moon Rhee as Lecturer in History for 1/1/04 - 6/30/04. 3) Dr. Sanj Malushete as Lecturer in Civil Engineering for 1/1/04 - 6/30/04. 4) Dr. Stephanie Stone as Lecturer in the Professional Communication Program in WSE for 1/25/04 - 4/30/04.

The meeting adjourned at 5:42 p.m.

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