Homewood Schools Academic Council

Homewood Schools Academic Council Minutes
March 15, 2006 | Board Room
Shriver Hall | 3:00 p.m.

The meeting of the Academic Council was called to order at 3:00 p.m. by Provost Steven Knapp. In addition to Provost Knapp, those attending were Dean Adam Falk, Associate Dean Andrew Douglas, Professors Gregory Ball, Veena Das, Paul Feldman, Frances Ferguson, Ali Khan, Stuart Leslie, Daniel Naiman, Matthew Roller, Wilson Rugh, Kathleen Stebe, and Sarah Woodson. President William Brody, Acting Dean of Faculty Gabrielle Spiegel, Dean Nicholas Jones, and Professor Victor Corces were absent.

Approval of minutes. The minutes for the meeting of February 15, 2006 were approved as submitted. The minutes for the meeting of March 1, 2006 were approved as amended.

Remarks by the Secretary. Professor Naiman reminded Council of the dinner meeting tonight with President Brody and that the last of the luncheons with junior faculty is this Friday.

Open discussion. Members discussed feedback from junior faculty on the new promotion and tenure rules. Some junior faculty had expressed concern about language in fourth-year review letters suggesting that these letters had been vetted by the General Counsel's office. The Deans explained that the point of the fourth-year review was to provide a frank assessment of the candidate's progress before the pivotal sixth-year review, not to provide a legal paper trail in cases where promotion or tenure might be denied. The Provost suggested reconsidering the wording of the procedures when the Council reviewed the new procedures at the end of the year.

Several members asked about the proposed scheduling changes sent to department chairs and shared with faculty members. Dean Falk said that the proposal had grown out of the CUE study from a couple of years ago. A committee headed by Dean Lattman had surveyed departments and showed support for a change, though the strength of that support varied by school and by field, with the strongest support from the Whiting School. Dean Falk emphasized that he had sent out the proposal for comment and that no decision on scheduling changes had yet been made. He said he welcomed feedback from the chairs and from the faculty on the scheduling issue.

The promotion of Dr. Mark Van Doren to the rank of tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Biology effective July 1, 2006 was approved.

Dr. Veena Das, liaison to the Board of Review reported that the promotion Dr. Alexander Spector to Research Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering was approved by the Board.

Dr. Dan Naiman, Chair of the Academic Affairs Subcommittee, reported on proposals submitted by the Graduate Board for changes to its Procedures manual. Council approved a proposal to allow the Graduate Board to administer M.A. and M.S. degrees for the School of Medicine for one year, until the School of Medicine takes responsibility for the degrees. Council also discussed the use of video and teleconferencing at Graduate Board oral examinations. Council agreed that while having all examiners present at the exam was preferable, particularly for preliminary examinations, it did not want to rule out the use of video and teleconferencing. Doing so would make it more difficult to find the best people to serve on exams, and would impose a particular burden for internationally oriented schools such as SAIS. Council decided to ask the Graduate Board for revised wording to allow video conferencing in appropriate situations.

The meeting adjourned at 4:57 p.m.

GO TO HOMEWOOD SCHOOLS ACADEMIC COUNCIL HOME PAGE

GO TO HOMEWOOD SCHOOLS ACADEMIC COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES

GO TO JHUNIVERSE