Approval of minutes. The minutes for the meeting of March 15, 2006 were approved as amended.

The appointment of Dr. Allen Grossman as Professor Emeritus in the Department of English effective July 1, 2006 was approved.

Dr. Greg Ball, Chair of Appointments and Promotions subcommittee reported that the following appointments have been approved: 1) Dr. Graeme Wilkin as J. J. Sylvester Assistant Professor in Mathematics for a 3 year period effective 7/1/06. 2) Dr. Makoto Nakamura as Visiting Assistant Professor in Mathematics for 1/20/07-5/31/07. 3) Dr. Rina Agarwala as Assistant Professor in Sociology effective 7/1/06. 4) Dr. Lisa Breglia as Adjunct Assistant Professor in Anthropology for 9/1/06-12/31/06. 5) Dr. Melanie Shell-Weiss as Visiting Assistant Professor in History for a 5 year period effective 7/1/06. 6) Dr. Christophe Menke as Visiting Professor in German and Romance Languages and Literatures for 9/1/06-12/31/06.

Dr. Veena Das, liaison to the Board of Review reported that the following appointments have been approved by the Board of Review: 1) Dr. Katalin Szlavecz as Associate Research Professor in Earth and Planetary Sciences effective 1/1/06. 2) Dr. Arne Schon promotion to Research Scientist in Biology for 5/1/06 - 4/30/07.

The Council turned to a discussion of Graduate Board restructuring. Dr. Richard McCarty, Dean Emeritus of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Ernst Spannhake of the Bloomberg School of Public Health, met with Council to discuss the Graduate Board. They outlined the history of the Graduate Board, which had been formed by Council in 1961. They had been asked to serve as a committee to consider ways of restructuring the Graduate Board to reflect contemporary practices across the many schools which the Graduate Board now serves. They explained that although each division of the university includes some version of the Academic Council, and each division has responsibility for its own doctoral degrees, only the Graduate Board has responsibility for the Ph.D. Drs. McCarty and Spannhake stressed that they were at the very beginning of this process and were looking for feedback. Council members raised a number of questions about how the Graduate Board might be more responsive to other schools and divisions of the University. They agreed that there was an important distinction between professional and academic programs, and that the Ph.D. should be administered by a single body responsible to the University as a whole. Drs. McCarty and Spannhake will consider alternatives to the current charter, structure, and reporting function of the Graduate Board and return to Council with a concrete proposal.

Discussion of Whiting School of Engineering Policy on Double-Counting. Council approved a new policy on double-counting courses towards master's degrees brought to the Academic Affairs subcommittee.

Preliminary discussion of issues raised by Board of Review. Professor Das explained some of the challenges the Board of Review has had in deciding upon appropriate titles for research professors. The Board of Review asked for guidance on such matters as the balance between research and teaching expected for particular titles. Dean Falk stressed the importance of fully recognizing the contributions of non-tenure track teaching professionals to the university. Council concluded that elaborating precise definitions for every appointment would not be possible, and so encouraged the Board of Review to send any difficult cases to Council. The Appointments and Promotions subcommittee will discuss the matter in detail with the Board of Review and consider revisions of the titles document, if necessary.

The meeting adjourned at 5:08 p.m.

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