Executive Committee Meeting Minutes: February 8, 2002 Whetten Graduate Center - Giolas Conference Room
2:00 P.M.

1. The meeting was called to order at 2:01 P.M. Associate Vice Provost James Henkel presided.
2. Three new members of the Executive Committee - J.G. Clifford, D. Cournoyer, and E. Smith - were welcomed, and E. Pagoulatos was recognized as a reelected member.
   
3. It was moved, seconded, and passed without dissent on a voice vote to approve as distributed the minutes of the 12-13-2001 meeting.
   
4. It was moved, seconded, and passed without dissent on a voice vote to approve the list of Plans of Study and Dissertation Proposals.
   
5. A proposal to implement a professional Master of Science degree program in a new Field of Study to be called Applied Financial Mathematics was considered and discussed. Funding has been secured from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for this and two other proposed professional master's degree programs in Applied Genomics (considered and approved at the 12-31-2001 meeting) and Microbiology (the proposal will be considered at a future meeting). The purpose of the program is to provide advanced training for individuals who wish to pursue careers involving financial mathematics. 82% of the fees generated by the program will be returned to the program, 5% of the fees generated will be directed to a fund to be administered by the Graduate School to provide support for the creation of new entrepreneurial professional degree programs, and the remainder of the revenues generated by the proposed program will go to the University. L. Strausbaugh noted that approximately fifteen institutions were funded by the Sloan Foundation for these multi-track programs.

   E. Pagoulatos asked about the distinction between this and the existing master's Area of Concentration in Actuarial Science. He asked also if other departments and/or programs should be consulted. J. Henkel noted that these matters can be addressed.

   Following discussion, Strausbaugh and Henkel (co-P.I.'s on the grant) stepped out of the room.

   It was moved (E. Smith), seconded (J.G. Clifford), and passed unanimously on a voice vote to approve the new degree program as proposed provided that Henkel is able to clarify with Charles Vinsonhaler, Department Head of Mathematics, the matters mentioned above, including the possible addition to the proposal of other departments which may offer courses that could supplement those already listed as optional courses.

   Strausbaugh and Henkel returned to the meeting following the vote.
   

6. J. Henkel updated the group on the status of the implementation of the new PeopleSoft student records and course registration software. He noted that adding computing power would be necessary to improve the system's response time during periods of heavy usage, but doing so would involve significant new resources. In light of the serious concerns about PeopleSoft expressed at the January meeting of the Graduate Faculty Council, Henkel suggested that the Executive Committee might wish to consider inviting Paul Kobulnicky, Vice Chancellor for Information Services; Scott Coopee, Director of the PeopleSoft Project; and Michael Kerntke, Director of the Computer Center, to the Council's next meeting. Members agreed that this would be appropriate.
   
   
7. There was discussion about the proposal of an ad hoc committee of the University Senate to modify the academic calendar. There was unanimous agreement that the Graduate Faculty Council must be consulted on this matter without delay. There is widespread concern among faculty members about the proposed shortening of the intersession. A variety of important uses of the extended intersession were identified (e.g., writing and research, grant preparation, and travel abroad at reasonable rates for research purposes). There is considerable agreement, however, about the need to modify the fall semester to avoid split weeks and so-called "virtual" days (i.e., one weekday following the schedule of another weekday in order to balance the numbers of the days of the week in a semester). There was discussion about a proposed December commencement ceremony as well as the long-term possibility of adding a third semester in the summer. A sub-committee comprising J. Marsden, E. Pagoulatos, and T. Peters was identified to draft a statement to be presented to the Graduate Faculty Council for consideration.
   
   
8. It was agreed that a meeting of the Graduate Faculty Council will be called for February 27, 2002. Agenda items for the meeting will be the PeopleSoft discussion (see #5 above) and the academic calendar issue (see #6 above).


9. Updates and Announcements -



• J. Henkel informed the group that the course ANTH 311 has been converted from S/U grading to standard letter grading. Students in this course have received letter grades for the past several years.


• J. Henkel called attention to the new, recently-announced 21st Century UConn program.


• There was discussion concerning the next round of NRC rankings.


• E. Pagoulatos asked about the status of the seven-year Graduate Faculty reappointment process and about the recently-announced reporting realignment of the Office of International Affairs.
  
  
10. Adjournment was at 4:10 PM.

Present:

• Clifford, J.G.
• Cournoyer, D.
• Henkel, J. (Associate Vice Provost)
• Herzberger, D.
• Maresh, C.
• Marsden, J.
• Maxwell, G. (Associate Dean)
• Pagoulatos, E.
• Peters, T. (Assistant Dean)
• Smith, E.
• Strausbaugh, L.
  

Regrets:

• Anderson, G. (on leave Spring 2002)
• Hart, I.

Respectfully submitted,

Thomas B. Peters
Secretary