Homewood Schools Academic Council

Homewood Schools Academic Council Minutes
February 7, 2007 | 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, Acting Dean of Faculty Gabrielle Spiegel, Dean Nicholas Jones, Associate Dean Andrew Douglas, Professors Gregory Ball, Robert Cammarata, Victor Corces, Paul Dagdigian, Veena Das, Paul Feldman, Frances Ferguson, Ali Khan, John Marshall, Charles Meneveau, and Jerry Prince. President William Brody and Professor Sarah Woodson were absent.

Remarks by the Secretary. Professor Das drew Council's attention to the schedule of the lunches with junior faculty.

The promotion of Dr. Karen Fleming to tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Biophysics effective July 1, 2007 was approved.

It was reported that the following appointments were approved by the Appointments and Promotions subcommittee: 1) Dr. James Conant as Visiting Professor in the Humanties Center for 4/9/07 - 4/27/07 2) Dr. Richard Moran as Visiting Professor in the Humanities Center for 1/29/07 - 2/16/07.

The minor in Museums and Society was approved.

Open discussion. A discussion ensued about the new business school. Provost Knapp said that there is an interdivisional search for the new Dean of the School of Business. Professor Joseph Harrington, Department of Economics and Associate Dean for Advanced Academic Programs Sarah Steinberg, both from the Krieger School, and Professor Ed Scheinerman, Applied Mathematics and Statistics from the Whiting School, are serving on the search committee. The committee is chaired by the Vice Dean for Education from the School of Medicine, Dr. David Nichols, who has a degree from the business program in addition to his medical and doctoral degrees. Provost Knapp suggested that since Council is interested in being intellectually supportive of the new school, perhaps they could have a discussion when the new Dean arrives. A Council member commented that the Graduate Board has also been discussing the new business school.

Remarks by the Chair. Provost Knapp reminded Council of the departmental review meeting on Saturday, February 17.

Remarks by the Deans. Dean Falk reported that both Dr. Anand Pandian and Dr. Clara Han had accepted their appointments as Assistant Professors in the Department of Anthropology effective July 1, 2007.

Dean Jones reported that the Whiting School had successfully competed for the Center of Excellence in Human Language Technology, which builds on the efforts for the Center for Language and Speech Processing. It is a collaborative center with the Applied Physics Lab (APL) and the University of Maryland. The Center will have a support of $50 million for 10-year period. Dean Jones said that the Whiting School has a small classified component. Most of the classified work is the APL work.

When a Council member asked what percent of the Stieff building will be used for classified research, Dean Jones said that it will be just a few thousand square feet which is a relatively small proportion of Stieff. It will be separate from the rest of the building with separate access points. Another Council member asked if there were still faculty offices in Stieff, Dean Jones said that the faculty offices are in the process of coming back to campus. In the basement there are still some of the large experimental facilities that are unmovable. A Council member suggested reviewing the ongoing concerns about classified research. Dean Jones said that they will be instituting oversight of this operation to minimize the likelihood of violations. He added that they acknowledge that this is a potentially sensitive issue.

The meeting adjourned at 4:27 p.m.

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