Approval of minutes. The minutes for the meetings of February 21 and March 7, 2007 were approved as amended.

Remarks by the Secretary. Professor Das reported that Ray Gillian conveyed to her how much he appreciated the questions and discussion of diversity issues at the March 7 meeting. He passed on a suggestion from the Diversity Leadership Council that the curriculum committees and other committees might consider that every student should be asked to take one course on diversity.

She reported that the dinner meeting with program directors was very interesting. At the next dinner meeting Council will transform issues discussed into specific action items.

Professor Das reported that Professor Jon Bagger will come to Council on April 11 to talk about restructuring of the Academic Council. She said the Council is hoping to resolve this issue before the end of the semester.

President Brody said he had to leave and told a story about academic productivity. A Council member commented that a number of people are very frustrated with SAP and said that faculty should not be wasting time trying to get travel reimbursement. President Brody said that this is the largest SAP conversion and that Hopkins had no choice but to do something differently. He said that conversions are always challenging. Hopkins has converted systems and revised its processes. Once you do that, you have to go back and revise the things that do not work. People either were not trained or were poorly trained. The training was not adequate. There are problems with the system, but President Brody was encouraged that Hopkins closed the books after one month. He suggested getting items on the punch list so the system can be modified and said that stating the problems constructively will be most productive. When President Brody said that there were four problems needing help, the Council member commented that there were 4, 40, or possibly 400 problems. Dean Falk said that the Arts and Sciences implementation team of 14 people had a productive, organized conversation yesterday with Fred Puddester and Jim McGill. He said the lines of communication are opening up. He has every reason to hope that this will result in the right things being fixed first. A Council member commented that having to make 370 entries for one student's expenditures over a one-month period is very inefficient. President Brody responded that in some areas the controls were too tight. In other areas there were no controls. Every major system like this is going to have bugs. 2000 different databases had to be cleaned. This is very, very complicated. A Council member commented that the frustrations are percolating and interfering with the normal academic activities of the campus. Dr. Brody responded that we have no choice but to make it work. There are people who do not want to change and do not want to learn the new system. They will raise the level of noise and say the system does not work. He said he was not saying that there are not problems. We will get through it as long as you are positive, supportive and bringing the problems forward. A Council member commented that it is hard not to scream when you are $2000 out of pocket waiting for reimbursement. President Brody spoke about potential savings by using uniform processes. When a Council member commented that the faculty want to know the proper channels, President Brody said that the faculty tell chairs who tell Deans. President Brody said that he heard what was being said. He left the meeting at 5:01 p.m. Dean Jones assumed the chair.

The appointment of Dr. Juliette Lecomte as Professor in the Department of Biophysics effective July 1, 2007 was approved.

The appointment of Dr. Robert Green as Professor Emeritus in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering effective July 1, 2007 was approved.

It was reported that Dr. Yingyao Hu as Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics effective July 1, 2007 was approved by the Appointments and Promotions subcommittee

Open discussion. A Council member brought up the article in The Gazette about the Brain Science initiative. Dean Falk said that the brain science initiative has grown out of truly interdivisional conversations over a number of years. He thought that what had been intended was something more limited, namely an administrative home for brain sciences within Medicine in order for it not to be located in the nebulous world between the divisions. Dean Falk said that he and Dean Jones had spoken with Dean Miller. Dean Jones added that there is an interdivisional committee working on this.

A Council member raised an issue and asked for the Deans' help. She said that the State Department advisories about dangerous countries pose problems for faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates who travel because of research being located in these places. Dean Falk said that this issue has been debated quite a bit. He suggested inviting Dean Burger, Dean of Undergraduate Education and Vice Provost, and Stephen Dunham, Vice President and General Counsel to discuss this with Council.

The meeting adjourned at 6:10 p.m.

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Last updated 18Jul07 by dgips@jhu.edu