By Larry B. Dendy
ldendy@uga.edu
University Council faces a protracted and possibly spirited meeting April 26 when it takes up a lengthy agenda featuring such potentially controversial items as a new date for fall break in 2002, a proposed campus memorial for military casualties, and a new College of Environment and Design.
The council will meet at 3:30 p.m. in the law school auditorium. But because of the packed agenda and anticipated lengthy debate, the council’s Executive Committee fears a quorum may be lost before all items are considered. So the committee has made arrangements to continue the meeting on April 27 at the same time and place if necessary.
Registrar Gary Moore, who serves as the council’s permanent secretary, says he can’t recall a hold-over meeting in the past 15 years. “This is one of the heaviest
agendas I can remember,” Moore says “A continuation meeting isn’t unprecedented, but it’s definitely unusual.”
The council meeting is open to anyone interested, but only elected faculty, student and staff members may speak and vote.
The council will try again to schedule a fall break for 2002, this time aiming for Oct. 7-8. At its last meeting in March, the council set the break for Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 21-22, but learned after the meeting that those dates follow the Homecoming football game. The council’s Educational Affairs Committee then considered Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 14-15, but dropped those dates because they are the first two days of Homecoming Week. The committee is now recommending Oct. 7-8, a Monday and Tuesday following an away football game.
By its March vote, the council signaled its intention to move fall break away from the Georgia-Florida football weekend, a decision that has drawn opposition from students.
The Educational Affairs Committee is also recommending moving the semester mid-point from the 38th class day to the 41st class day, and making the 41st day the last day a student can withdraw from a class. The committee says this will give instructors more flexibility in testing students, and give students a better idea of how they’re doing in a course before the deadline for withdrawals.
If both recommendations pass, the 2002 semester mid-point would be Oct. 17, a week after the fall break.
The council will consider a recommendation from its Facilities Committee to create an ad hoc committee to study the feasibility of a campus memorial honoring students, faculty, staff and alumni “who gave their lives in the service of the United States military.”
The Executive Committee debated the original proposal for a peace memorial and returned it to the Facilities Committee for further development, a routine practice in preparing the agenda for full council meetings. A reworded proposal was unanimously approved by the Executive Committee at a subsequent meeting.
If approved, the ad hoc committee would conduct a study to determine if a memorial should be erected. If so, the committee would recommend name, purpose, location and design.
The proposal for the College of Environment and Design envisions a unit that would be “the premier source of reliable information about natural and cultural environments [and would promote] a value system that includes perpetuating and/or restoring the integrity of environments.”
The college would be formed around the School of Environmental Design and the Institute of Ecology and initially would be funded largely from existing budgets of these units. It would include an Academy of Environment and Design drawn from faculty who have an interest in environmental issues. Other campus institutes, centers and departments would be “affiliated units” with the college.
The college would be the university’s 15th academic unit and the second new unit this year. The council earlier approved creation of a School of Public and International Affairs.
In other action, the council will also be asked to approve a Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute. The institute would draw together research strengths in some two dozen schools, colleges, departments, centers and other units, and would become the university’s focal point for research and education in health sciences.
The institute’s goals include attracting additional funding for research, recruiting top researchers, offering interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs, and giving UGA’s biomedical programs more state and national visibility.
The council will also be asked to approve an African Studies Institute and new interdisciplinary certificate programs in East Central European Studies, water resources and qualitative studies.
A student group named the Pillars of the Arch Association is asking the council to endorse a statement that sets out principles to help members of the university community be “strong and complete citizens.” Based on the three pillars in the Arch--symbolizing wisdom, justice and moderation--the statement espouses such values as “embracing curiosity, discovery and expression,” being “fair in our dealings . . . and empathetic for others” and promoting “responsible citizenship [and] pride.”
A new Executive Committee chair was elected at the committee’s final meeting of the year. Chris Langone, a professor of agricultural leadership, education and communication in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, will be chair for the 2001-2002 academic year. |
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