Approval of minutes. The minutes for the meeting of April 26 and May 3, 2006 were approved as amended.

Open discussion. Professor Roller commented that attendance had dwindled at the University-wide commencement since the undergraduates are no longer required to attend. He asked if the University-wide commencement might be rethought. The Provost agreed that it is a problem worth further discussion.

The appointment of Dr. Steven Gross as tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy effective July 1, 2006 was approved.

The appointment of Dr. William Egginton as Professor in Department of German and Romance Languages effective July 1, 2006 was approved.

The appointment of Dr. Rachel Karchin as Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in WSE effective September 16, 2006 was approved.

The promotion of Dr. Todd Hufnagel to the rank of full Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering effective July 1, 2006 was approved.

The conferral of tenure to Associate Professor Daniel Deudney in the Department of Political Science effective July 1, 2006 was approved.

The promotion of Dr. Alison Okamura to the rank of tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering effective July 1, 2006 was approved.

It was reported that the following appointments have been approved by the Appointments and Promotions subcommittee: 1) Dr. David Ilan as Visiting Professor in Near Eastern Studies for 7/1/06 - 12/31/06. 2) Ms. Pamela Sheff as Lecturer in the Center for Leadership Education for 7/1/06 - 6/30/07.

The Council approved the following new members for appointment to the 2006-2007 Graduate Board: E. William Spannhake, Professor, Environmental Health Sciences, Bloomberg School of Public Health, John Matsui, student, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and Andrew Watkins, Student, School of Medicine.

Dean Douglas added that the Graduate Deans met and decided to bring a proposal to Council in the fall that will detail the responsibilities of the Graduate Board.

The Council discussed the weekly class meeting schedule. Dean Falk reported that the Deans are prepared to go forward with a decision about a change in the weekly class schedule and wanted to give Council the opportunity to comment. The CUE commission recommended that the class schedule be seriously studied. Dean Falk said it had been a consultative process. There was no unanimity about what to do. He outlined three motivations for changing to a more conventional Monday, Wednesday, Friday/Tuesday, Thursday schedule. First was a desire to decompress the academic week for the students. All of the professionals in Student Life agree that the balance of student lives would be enhanced by spreading out their academic time during the week. Second, pedagogy — though many faculty like teaching on the schedule that we have, more would prefer to teach on a MWF and TTh schedule. The third reason was consistency with other schools. The Deans want to preserve flexibility and the research mission of the University. The proposed schedule will help avoid conflicts and utilize classrooms more efficiently. At some point departments may be required to spread out their courses throughout the day.

Remarks by the Chair. Provost Knapp asked for a motion giving the Deans the power over the summer to make non-tenure track and Assistant Professor appointments that would normally be made by the subcommittee. The motion was approved.

Provost Knapp thanked the Council for its diligent work. He suggested finding ways to free up more time for some of the strategic issues that come up. He reported that the Deans are going on a retreat with President Brody to think about broad issues facing the University.

The meeting adjourned at 6:34 p.m.

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Last updated 20Sep06 by dgips@jhu.edu