Remarks by the Secretary. Professor Das reported that the Academic Council Restructuring/Election committee's report was discussed at the dinner meeting on April 10. Council appreciated the clarity of Dr. Bagger's report. After the discussion with Professor Bagger, Council would like to think about how to proceed.

Previous discussions were rounded up about diversity issues, interdepartmental majors, and questions of interdisciplinary research and graduate training. Three points to take forward now are: 1) Administrating programs, 2) criteria for evaluation of interdepartmental majors and 3) the appointments in interdepartmental programs and thinking creatively about making available positions on the condition that they were agreed upon across departments.

Discussion with Dr. Jon Bagger regarding committee on Academic Council restructuring: Dr. Bagger joined the meeting at 3:11 p.m. He said he wanted to talk about the reasons behind the committee's recommendations on how to restructure the Academic Council. The committee members included two current Academic Council members as well as some former Council members. When the committee thought about the roles of the Academic Council, with the exception of tenure, most of the decisions made by AC could be undone. Therefore, the committee felt that tenure decisions are the most important function of the Academic Council. The committee's recommendations are crafted with that in mind. The committee unanimously thought that the five-year term length is too long. A fair representation of the various fields on Council was discussed at length. Many people in the humanities and social sciences feel disenfranchised by the current system. They feel that there are so many natural scientists and engineers that even casual votes would skew the results of the election. As far as election procedures, very few people like the present system. They are in favor of moving to a single election system. Professor Bagger left the meeting at 4:01 p.m.

Provost Knapp asked how Council would like to proceed. Professor Feldman, Chair of the Administration and Bylaws subcommittee, suggested that his committee draft a one-page statement which Council could discuss at the May 2 meeting. Then this statement could be taken by Deans Falk and Jones to the Chairs meetings in May and presented to the Faculty Assembly in the fall.

The promotion of Dr. Adam Sheingate to tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science effective July 1, 2007 was approved.

It was reported that the following appointments were approved by the Appointments and Promotions subcommittee: 1) Dr. Donald Carter as Senior Lecturer in Anthropology for 7/1/07 - 6/30/08. 2) Dr. Erica Gould as Visiting Assistant Professor in Political Science for 7/1/07 - 12/31/07. 3) Dr. Albert Kyle as Richard T. Ely Visiting Professor in Economics for 4/1/07 - 4/30/07.

Open Discussion. A Council member asked about the new ISIS system for reporting grades. Dean Falk said that five years ago a choice of a software vendor was made. It was determined that a flexible software product was needed that could be used in Nursing, SAIS, Engineering and Arts and Sciences. Three of the four modules are being used now - the financial aid module, the admissions module and one other. The registration module is the largest and most complicated and is scheduled to go live in July. Dean Falk said that the first three modules have functioned well and within budget. When asked about Mac compatibility Dean Falk said he would have to find out about this issue.

Remarks by the Chair. Provost Knapp reported on the Attorney General's office in the State of New York investigation of "kick-back schemes" and the resulting Hopkins investigation of the practices of its seven financial aid offices.

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Last updated 18Jul07 by dgips@jhu.edu