Prof. Kevin J. Hemker (Chair)
Prof. Todd Hufnagel (Vice Chair) - absent
Prof. Betsy Bryan (Secretary) - absent

Attendance: Approximately 60 faculty and staff were in attendance.

1. Welcome

Professor Hemker opened the meeting at 3:15 PM by welcoming the faculty and staff. He asked for corrections to the minutes of the meeting of April 17, 2006 and hearing none entertained a motion of approval, which was seconded and approved.

2. President William Brody

President Brody addressed the assembly and began by mentioning he had just returned from China the night before; he visited the Hopkins Center in Nanjing. He noted that a new building was just built with more housing and faculty space and mentioned interest in research on Sino-American studies. He noted that the Center for Talented Youth is looking into Nanjing. President Brody also visited The Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, which is at the National University of Singapore and managed by Peabody. He noted that the National University of Singapore would like to increase the presence of Johns Hopkins in Singapore.

President Brody noted that the Homewood Schools had a record year of undergraduate applications, exceeding that of our peer institutions. He stressed the importance of early decisions for Hopkins and noted that the in-coming class has the following demographics: 52% male / 48% female; international student numbers up slightly from previous years; 173 underrepresented minority students (an increase for the sixth consecutive year); 63% Arts & Sciences / 37% Engineering; top five states from which are students come are NJ, NY, MD, CA & PA. He also noted that there were 6,138 graduate applications for Arts & Sciences and Engineering and a 5% increase in the number of new students enrolled, 533.

President Brody highlighted recent increases in diversity of faculty - Ben Vinson in History, new Director of Africana Studies Program, and Michael Hanchard, Professor of Political Science, but also noted that the Committee on Women report on diversity at JHU indicates that we still have a long way to go. The climate survey indicates that women and minority staff, faculty and students find a less hospitable atmosphere than their male counterparts compared to peer institutions.

Regarding capital projects, President Brody mentioned the continued construction of the Decker Quadrangle, which is scheduled to open in Fall 2007; Charles Commons officially opened; Barnes & Noble JHU Bookstore scheduled to open 10/21/2006; Gilman Hall renovations in programming phase, with construction to begin Summer 2007.

The President also highlighted Edmund Skrodzki's performance as Executive Director of Safety and Security. The number of reported crimes has dropped from 32 (2004) to 23 (2005) to 13 (YTD 2006). The greatest decline is in burglaries - 9 (2004) to 1 (YTD 2006). President Brody acknowledged that additional robberies and burglaries have occurred on University Parkway outside of the perimeter of the Homewood campus.

President Brody closed by mentioning that he is going back to China in November on a trip with Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, commenting on a recent report on higher education that says that universities are too liberal and said that the real concern is the price of tuition, indicating that the Homewood Deans are managing the budgets positively, and noting record turnouts of alumni at recent JHU "Knowledge for the World" events.

Questions:

Allan Shearn (Biology) - It is encouraging to hear of all of the investments in China but when will the Arellano Theatre be improved?

Presdent Brody - It is a question of dealing with priorities. The Nanjing expansion is part of SAIS and not part of Homewood. It is funded by Chinese investors. There is also the priority of the Gilman expansion.

John Bagger (Physics & Astronomy) - Asked for a clarification on Singapore.

President Brody - At a time when research money is short, Singapore University is an exception, building first-class facilities. However, it is difficult to get faculty to go to Singapore. There are third and/or half- time appointments and they are interested in funding more projects with Hopkins. More people should go over to build ties.

2. Dean Nick Jones (Whiting School of Engineering)

Dean Jones noted an increase in undergraduate and graduate applications with a focus on better presentation of women in engineering; at a time when the national enrollment of women in engineering is 20% and declining, it is 35% for WSE undergrads and 30% at the graduate level. Dean Jones noted that WSE hired 7 new faculty members in the last year and that most were women. He stated that WSE is making progress in gender diversity but continues to face challenges in attracting other underrepresented minority groups; 12 women on tenure track in July 2004 and there are 19 on tenure track this year.

The Dean also highlighted the opening of two new major institutes - the Institute for Computational Medicine and the Institute for Nano-biotechnology (INBT). The Institute for Computation Medicine made two faculty hires (two women) and INBT is up and running. The new building on the Decker Quad is past half-done, ahead of schedule, on budget, and may well come in under budget. WSE is still working hard to fund raise for the building.

Dean Jones also indicated that he is optimistic that this year will be the last in a series of difficult budget years; next year looks to be a turnaround as projections are that WSE will be back in the black. Faculty investments continue. A Dean's leadership fund, with the goal of providing $500k a year in discretionary investments and initiatives, has raised $800,000 so far. The Whiting School Strategic Plan will be presented to the National Advisory Council as part of Leadership Weekend at the end of October, and on November 1st this plan will become the guiding strategic plan for the School.

Questions:

(Unknown) - Did policy change to promote the hiring of women?

Dean Jones - I authorized an increased number of searches and asked all departments to cast a broader net. I also made it clear that departments that did not hire someone this year would continue to search in subsequent years.

Andrea Prosperetti (Mechanical Engineering) - How is research support funding?

Dean Jones - We had five or six years of double- digit percentage increase in research support; last few years things have flattened off, even a small decline; which has been a challenge.

Jon Bagger (Physics & Astronomy) - Asked about partnering with Nanjing & Singapore.

Dean Jones - We are corresponded with Nanjing and outlining ideas about collaboration - jointly offering M.S. programs and research programs in materials science, engineering, nanotechnology, and physics.

3. Adam Falk (Krieger School of Arts &Sciences)

Dean Falk commented that the Krieger School is strong and that the faculty continue to make accomplishments: Charles Bennett (Physics & Astronomy) received 2006 Harvey Prize; Adam Riess (Physics & Astronomy) was awarded the 2006 Shaw Prize for Astronomy; Michael Fried (Humanities Center) received the 2006 Academy Award in Literature; Andrew Fire (Adjunct in Biology) shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Dean Falk indicated that the incoming class - 792 students is larger than anticipated and noted the on-going challenge of retaining a distribution amongst majors. He also noted that Gilman Hall renovations are in the programming stage and that the budget for this is improving. He noted a flattening or decrease in NIH research funding but remains cautious optimism concerning budgets.

Dean Falk addressed the implementation of a change in the scheduling of Homewood courses and noted the Faculty Assembly's role in providing a meaningful dialog for this topic before final decisions were made.

Questions:

None

4. Dr. Jim McGill updating Hopkins One

Dr. McGill noted that the "Go live" date for Hopkins One is still January 1st 2007. Dr. McGill highlighted numerous features of the new system: an electronic pre-award system (COEUS) is available for submission of federal grant proposals; Grants & Contracts will be running in 'real time'; purchasing will be streamlined and have 'real time' data and there will be minimization of late payments of bills; payroll will experience a decrease in time to get new employees in system and process payroll changes; finances will have 'real time' data also and speed up processing and info and data. Dr. McGill highlighted three critical areas to keep an eye on:

1. Planning for the transition on January 1st, 2007 - there is some risk associated with going live with the new system without parallel operation of CUFS. He appealed to the faculty to be understanding with all administrative assistants, who will still be struggling with the new system and will not always be available;

2. Reporting may be delayed slightly.

3. Training - 11,000 people (including the health system) will be using Hopkins One; 8500 of them will get online training; 2500 will get classroom training, which is more detailed and for those using Hopkins One for more specific administrative and financial duties; these classroom training sessions will begin on October 23rd and will take up to 120 hours. Again he appealed to the faculty to understand that the staff will not be available at all times during this training period. Dr. McGill acknowledged that there have been problems with online training with difficulties logging in, erroneous "error pages" and complaints about the quality of the online training sessions. He indicated that these issues were being addressed and stressed the fact that after January 1st 2007, there will be teams of experts scattered throughout Hopkins who will assist those who still need help using the new system.

Gabrielle Spiegel (Chair of History) - What is someone does not pass the tests/training?

Dr. McGill - That will not be a problem, as there will be assistance and courses will stay online even after the go live date. There will also be resources in the Deans' offices for more assistance.

Candace Abel (Admin. Manager, Elect. & Comp. Eng.) - commented that more information will be shared with more faculty.

Kevin Hemker (Mechanical Engineering) - Will faculty actually be using the new system?

Dr. McGill - Those are individual decisions, some may and some may opt to have an administrator interface with the system for them.

(Unknown) - Will the new system affect students?

Dr. McGill - No.

Candace Abel (Admin. Manager, Elect. & Comp. Eng.) - Is there a time frame for when courses will be available online?

Dr. McGill - unfortunately, we do not currently have a time frame but we are working on it..

Debbi Donhauser (Admin. Manager, Mech. Eng.) - Is there a possibility that the new system will not be able to go live on January 1st, and if so, what is the alternative?

Dr. McGill - If it determined that we cannot go live on January 1st then Hopkins One could be postponed for three months, but there are numerous costs associated with that and many factors that would have to be considered. As it stands now, we anticipate going live as planned.

5. Close

Professor Hemker closed the meeting at 5:00 PM and thanked everyone for their participation.

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Last updated 07Mar06 by dgips@jhu.edu