Approval of minutes. The minutes for the meeting of September 14, 2005 were approved as amended.

Remarks by the Secretary. Professor Rugh reported that there was a wide range of discussion at the dinner meeting on Tuesday, September 20 so he prepared some notes. He said that three of the points of discussion might want to be referred to the appropriate committees. The increasing number of large classes was discussed. It was suggested that this issue be discussed by the Curriculum Committees.

Professor Rugh reported that there was sentiment at the dinner meeting that the Titles document should be addressed. The Provost suggested that the administration and bylaws subcommittee, chaired by Professor Feldman, discuss this and bring back recommendations to Council.

Professor Rugh also reported that there was a discussion of the role of the departmental liaison in fact checking and a suggestion for some procedural modifications. That could be added to the list of small items to be fixed in the procedures.

A Council member raised the question of whether Council should invite Department chairs and ad hoc committee chairs to comment on their experiences with the new appointment and promotion procedures. After a discussion Council decided to allow the guests to make comments about the new process after the discussion of a candidate, but with no immediate discussion by Council. Provost Knapp suggested that a running list of what the guests say be kept for the Appointments and Promotions subcommittee to discuss and bring back to Council.

Open discussion. A Council member commented that recently the ACE guide was published and that only two of twenty courses taught in Applied Mathematics and Statistics were reviewed. A discussion ensued about the ACE guide. When a professor asked about paper copies of the ACE guide he was told that the guide is available on line.

Council considered proposed language regarding alternative procedures in exceptional circumstances for insertion into Appointment/Promotion procedures. Dean Falk referred to p. 6 of the Appointment and Promotion procedures. "Under truly exceptional circumstances, the Academic Council may decide to follow an alternative procedure in considering an appointment or promotion, such as choosing not to solicit external letters. However, under no circumstance may the Council suspend its rules for voting on appointments and promotions. The dean should discuss with Council any proposed change in procedure before an ad hoc committee is formed." A motion to adopt this language passed unanimously.

Consideration of Graduate Board new members. The following people were approved for appointment to the 2005-2006 Graduate Board: Richard McCarty, Professor of Biology, P.M. Forni, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Bernard Shiffman, Professor of Mathematics, Bruce Parrott, Professor of Advanced International Studies, David Yarowsky, Professor of Computer Science, Wilbur Channels, student, School of Engineering, and Teresa Brockie, student, School of Nursing.

Report from Dr. Veena Das on appointments approved by the Board of Review. Professor Das said that there are two issues which are important to clarify. The major issue is how to interpret existing titles. The second issue is that one set of policies says that classified research cannot be considered and another set of policies says that it can. Professor Ball asked about the Appointment and Promotions subcommittee meeting with the chair of Board of Review to talk about titles. Professor Das agreed that that would be helpful.

Remarks by the Chair. Provost Knapp reminded Council that there would be a Council meeting next Wednesday. He said that the University had responded in a number of ways to the hurricane disaster in New Orleans. Because of Katrina about thirty higher education institutions were forced to close. Hopkins in cooperation with peer institutions has admitted twenty-nine students, mostly undergraduate students from Tulane. The understanding is that to help ensure the financial survival of these affected institutions the institutions around the country which are accepting these students are either not collecting tuitions in cases where the tuition has already been collected, or collecting the gulf coast institution's tuition and remitting it to them. In effect Hopkins is absorbing these students without any remuneration. That was a recommendation made by a collection of nine consortia including the AAU, the CIC, and a number of these collections of higher institutions. After September 11th Hopkins created the Critical Event Preparedness and Response (CEPAR) to help coordinate work between our Hospital, the University and the various government authorities- State, City, Federal to think about things like evacuation and handling mass casualties. CEPR organized volunteers for the Gulf Coast. Mike Klag, the new dean of public health assumed his office on September 1 and a week later found himself in Texas helping to coordinate relief efforts down there. In addition to the 29 students on this campus there are 30 some public health students from Tulane. Faculty have also been displaced. It is a huge problem to people supported on grants so we are also providing offices and laboratory space. Paul Whelton, the head of the medical center down there was a former Hopkins faculty member so we do have close connections with Tulane. When Professor Stebe asked if this were a gesture that we could continue to make, Provost Knapp said that as we become aware of these things we are trying to respond.

Provost Knapp reported that Steve Dunham, the newly appointed Vice President and General Counsel is soon to arrive. He is a very experienced and distinguished academic lawyer. Kathryn J. Crecelius, the new Chief Investment Officer is already on board. She will help manage the endowment. She comes from MIT which has a very large endowment. The search committee for the KSAS Dean is on schedule and is hoping for a resolution by the end of fall or early spring. They have identified a list for first round interviews. Since Council's last meeting in the spring Dr. Robert Sirota, the head of Peabody, is leaving to become the President of the Manhattan School of Music. There is an interim replacement, Mr. Peter Landgren. He has been on the faculty for more than twenty years and is the Associate Principal Horn player. A search has been launched. The Provost said that nominations were welcome.

Remarks by the Deans. Dean Falk reported that Adam Reiss has accepted a position as professor of Physics and Astronomy.

The meeting adjourned at 5:15 p.m.

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Last updated 07Nov05 by dgips@jhu.edu