University Council Minutes

02/07/2008 03:30 PM - Mahler Auditorium - Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel

The University Council met on February 7, 2008 in the Mahler Auditorium of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Hotel and Conference Center.  President Adams called the meeting to order at 3:32 p.m.

The minutes from the October 30, 2007 University Council meeting were approved as distributed.

President Adams' report included the following:

1. The University of Georgia is the only public university in the nation to have two recipients of the Rhodes Scholarship this year.  Congratulations were extended to Deep Shah, Kate Vyborny and the Honors Program faculty.
2. Great progress has been made on the medical initiative since the Council met in December.  Dr. Adams was pleased that Governor Perdue included the full request for funding and facilities in his budget.  The university hopes to receive a favorable response from the legislature during their ongoing session which will allow construction and accreditation issues to proceed.  The university purchased, with assistance from the Real Estate Foundation, the former O’Malley’s building to serve as a teaching facility for medical education to include classrooms, labs and offices as early as the fall of 2009.
3. The University of Georgia-Tunisia Educational Partnership has been selected to receive the Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education from the Institute of International Education.  Takoi Hamrita was congratulated for her work with the partnership.
4. UGA ranked in the top ten nationally in residential study abroad experiences.
5. U.S. News & World Report ranked UGA seventeenth in the country among public/private institutions and sixth among public institutions in admissions and popularity of high school seniors looking for a college.  Final decisions on the class to be admitted this fall should be available in the next two months or so.
6. Congratulations were extended to Tom Landrum who was named the permanent senior vice president for external affairs.
7. David Landau was congratulated for having been named winner of the 2007 Nicholson Medal for Human Outreach by the American Physical Society.
8. About twenty-seven hundred students graduated on December 15, 2007.  Around twenty-two hundred were awarded undergraduate degrees and five hundred or so were awarded graduate degrees.

Dr. Adams read this statement regarding harassment.  The floor was opened to questions and concerns.

The floor was then opened for standing committee reports as follows:

Executive Committee (attachment a)
Curriculum Committee (attachment b)

Following the report of the Curriculum Committee Dr. William Vencill presented the following Curriculum Committee proposals for Professor David Shipley:

1. A proposal to offer a Master of Environmental Planning and Design.  The vote was called and the proposal was approved.
2. A proposal to terminate the M.Ed. in Health Promotion and Behavior.  The vote was called and the proposal was approved.
3. A proposal for a Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystems Health.  The vote was called and the proposal was approved.
4. A proposal for a major in Food Industry Marketing and Administration (B.S.A.).  The vote was called and the proposal was approved.
5. A proposal for a Master of International Policy (M.I.P.).  The vote was called and the proposal was approved.
6. A proposal for a minor in Ecology.  The vote was called and the proposal was approved.
7. A proposal for a Certificate in Agribusiness Law.  The vote was called and the proposal was approved.
8. A proposal for an Institute for Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics.  The vote was called and the proposal was approved.
9. A proposal for The Food Product Innovation and Commercialization Center.  The vote was called and the proposal was approved.
10. A proposal to change the name of the minor in Agricultural Economics.  The vote was called and the proposal was approved.
11. A proposal to change the name of the major in Sport Studies.  The vote was called and the proposal was approved.

Dr. Denise Mewborn presented a request from the Educational Affairs Committee to Minimize the Number of Course Withdrawals (attachment c).  There was general discussion on these proposed solutions with the majority of questions and comments being on the limit of four withdrawals during undergraduate students' careers. Following discussion, each of the following proposed solutions were voted on separately:

1. Add an "Add" day to drop/add.  The vote was called and this proposed solution was approved.
2. Limit students to four withdrawals during their undergraduate careers.  A friendly amendment was made and accepted to allow courses with required labs to count as only one withdrawal.  There was a motion made and defeated to change the wording of the proposal from four courses to twenty hours.  There was another motion made and defeated to change the wording from four W’s to sixteen hours.  The vote was called and the original proposed solution containing the friendly amendment was approved.
3. Move the withdrawal deadline to two weeks after the midpoint of the semester. The vote was called and this proposed solution was approved.
4. Change the grading system from W (withdraw) and WF (withdraw failing) to WP (withdraw passing) and WF.  The vote was called and this proposed solution was approved.

Dr. Elizabeth St. Pierre gave a report from a joint meeting of the Faculty Affairs Committee and the Committee on Statutes, Bylaws and Committees (attachment d).

Dr. Adrian Childs gave a report from the Benefits Committee (attachment e) and the Committee on Facilities (attachment f).  Note:  Additional information on the Optional Retirement Plan bills moving through the Georgia legislature can be found here.  (Added on 2.15.2008)

Kathryn Bowers gave the report from the Student Government Association (attachment g).

Under general discussion Dr. Mark Brown urged Optional Retirement Plan (ORP) participants to contact their local legislators regarding House Bill 815 which proposes changes to the ORP.  Dr. Adams added that the local contacts are Douglas McKillip and Ralph Hudges.  Note:  Additional information on the Optional Retirement Plan bills moving through the Georgia legislature can be found here.  (Added on 2.15.2008)

Dr. Adams stated that he had attended the funeral of Jack Turner at 2:00 p.m.  Mr. Turner was the largest supporter of Women's Sports in university history.  Dr. Adams requested a moment of silence be observed in honor of Mr. Turner.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Rebecca L. Macon
University Council Secretary

University Council Roster

Represented by proxy

Adams, Michael Allen, Christopher Anderson, Wyatt Artelt, Thomas Baginski, Steve Bamber, Michael Bennett, Rodney Bernstein, Irwin Bothe, Anne Bower, Don Bowers, Kathryn Brown, Mark Brown, Wayde Burnett, Wesley Calhoun, Georgia Cason, Caroline Childs, Adrian Chinnan, Manjeet Cooney, Mark Cornell, Karen Covich, Alan Cox, Clayton Cramond, Bonnie Curtis, Robert Daniel, Jerry Davis, Jolene DerVartanian, Dan Dunning, Arthur Fowler, Laurie Giraudo, Silvia Gittleman, John Goodie, Adam Gore, Matthew Grasso, Maureen Harriman, Jay Harris, Ruth Hill, Michael Hilton, Nelson Hodler, Thomas Hollett, Bruce Honerkamp, Ken Horne, Arthur Hume, Janice Hunt-Hurst, Patricia Jolly, Laura Kaufman, Alexander Keen, Brenda Krunkosky, Thomas Landau, David Lauth, Thomas Lipp, Erin Little, Susan Love, Sarajane Macon, Rebecca Maier, Robert Mauricio, Robert McCarthy, Conner McFalls, Mason Merkle, Scott Mewborn, Denise Milford, Richard Miller, John Momany, Cory Morehead, Jere Munneke, Henry Noakes, Scott Norman, Naomi O’Looney, John Pruitt, Sonja Quinlan, Susan Reber, Bryan Rhoades, Robert Ritz, Casey Rumely, Robert Saltz, David Scott, Larry Secord, Cameron Shah, Ashay Shamp, Claudia Siry, Jacek St. Pierre, Elizabeth Stanley, Deborah Stokes, Garnett Sumichrast, Robert Thompson, Claire Vail, Cynthia van lersel, Marc Veliyath, Amrita Vencill, William Weaver, Jace Weinberg, Scott Williams, Phillip Wilson, Jeanna Wraga, William Yager, Patricia Zinkhan, George

Allen, Sheila Andrews, Gayle Andzejewski, Sara Bellezza, Alicia Bergmann, Carl Bettinger, Pete Budsberg, Steve Burgess, Timothy Clarke, Culpepper Crowe, Douglas Florkowski, Wojciech Hall, Helen Hoffer, Peter Lee, David Lewis, Steven Mace, Arnett Oie, Svein Potter, William Roulston, Kathy Sarasvati, Bala Scott, Shannon Thomas, Susan Tiller, Lori Voekel, Pamela