By Larry B. Dendy
ldendy@uga.edu
A School of Public and International Affairs that would immediately give the University of  Georgia one of the nation’s top academic programs in that field moved a step closer to reality when the University Council approved the school last month.
Developed over the past two years by a faculty planning committee, the school would offer teaching, research and service programs in domestic and international affairs and address problems of public management and policy, according to the proposal approved by the council.
If approved by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents, the school will be UGA’s 14th major academic unit and the first new school since the School of Environmental Design was created in 1969.
The school will be built around the existing political science department, which will be separated into three departments focusing on political science, public policy and administration, and international affairs. It will also incorporate the Center for International Trade and Security and the Center for the Study of Global Issues and have close ties with other units.
“The school will be heavily interdisciplinary,” Loch Johnson, professor of political science and chair of the planning committee, told the council in response to criticism by economics professors that the school would be weighted too heavily toward political science. The professors said UGA’s school would not have as many faculty from economics and other disciplines as the nation’s most highly regarded public affairs programs.
Johnson said the school initially would have five economists, and more would be added as the school grows, along with faculty from criminal justice, social work, law, the Vinson Institute of Government and other units.
Headed by its own dean, the school would offer, in addition to academic courses, opportunities for service learning, internships, seminars and access to public leaders. The school would be funded largely by private gifts and state appropriations, according to Johnson.
The proposal for the school notes UGA’s graduate program in public administration is ranked fifth in the nation and says the new school would “become the leading institution of its kind in the South and one of the best in the nation.” Speaking in support of the school, political science professor Del Dunn said the school would rank in the same group as programs at Syracuse, Harvard and Princeton.
UGA President Michael F. Adams applauded the council’s action as a move that “will undergird our already strong efforts in the field of public affairs. . . . This school is a natural step for us, and I thank the faculty for their support of this exciting and important initiative.”
The council also voted to move fall semester break in 2002 to Oct. 21 and 22, a Monday and Tuesday. Those dates were chosen over an alternative proposal to add two days to the existing three-day Thanksgiving break.
The decision may be rescinded, however, because it was discovered the day after the meeting that those days follow Homecoming.
In a debate on scheduling the break, student members of the council argued that a mid-October break, which would follow mid-term exams, would be more “restful” and “re-energizing” than a longer Thanksgiving break, which would occur only a week before the end of classes. However, they asked that the break not be scheduled following Homecoming.
The council was trying to comply with that request, but no one checked the 2002 football schedule to see that the chosen dates follow the Oct. 19 Vanderbilt game, which will be Homecoming. After the oversight was discovered, Charles Keith, chair of the council’s Executive Committee, said another date for fall break will probably be chosen at the council’s next meeting.
The council rescheduled the break because the Educational Affairs Committee recommended that it be moved from the Thursday and Friday prior to the Georgia-Florida football game. David Williams, committee chair, said linking the break to the football game has caused problems in scheduling science labs and exams. Some critics also view the break as possibly contributing to student alcohol use and damaging the university’s academic reputation, Williams said.
The new fall break date will take effect in 2002; the break for fall semester of 2001 will be Oct. 25-26, the weekend of the football game.
Williams also announced that spring break in 2002 will be the third week of March to coincide with spring break for Clarke County public schools.
In other action, the council:
• Approved a recommendation from the Registration Advisory Committee that reduces the maximum number of hours for which an undergraduate can register without administrative approval from 18 to 17. The move is designed to discourage students from “course shopping,” the practice of signing up for a maximum course load and then dropping courses during the drop/add period.
• Approved a recommendation from the Educational Affairs Committee that prohibits tests or quizzes being given on the final instructional day of a course.
• Approved an Educational Affairs Committee recommendation allowing students three semesters, instead of two, to remove an “incomplete” from a course grade.
• Approved a recommendation from the Faculty Affairs Committee that “the administration use Social Security numbers for restricted purposes only and not as identification on routine university forms.” |
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