Adams vetoes University Council's provost input

What was supposed to be just another Executive Committee meeting yesterday turned into an opportunity to push along a story about the provost search at UGA.

Last month the University Council passed a motion which would effectively give it a larger role in the provost hiring decision. UGA President Michael Adams immediately expressed that he did not agree with the decision, a four-part proposal with the final part calling for a recorded vote by the council on their pick for provost.

At the committee meeting yesterday, the chair read a letter dated April 1 from Adams stating that he had decided to veto the council's decision. Adams cited Georgia's "stringent open records law" as his main reason for vetoing the motion.

Click here to read my article on Adams's decision to veto the council's motion.

Univ. Council votes to have greater say in hiring provost

In January, UGA's president announced that the provost would be retiring this year. At the time of the announcement, he said there were no specific candidates in mind to replace the current provost.

It's been about two months since the announcement and after Thursday's University Council meeting, it appears that faculty and students may have a larger say in the decision than they have in previous provost hirings.

President Adams outlined his plan for the new provost hiring process at the beginning of the Council meeting Thursday afternoon, saying he hoped it would be managed in the same manner as the previous two hirings for the position. He has appointed a chair of a provost search committee and Adams said that committee would find three to five qualified candidates to bring to campus for an in-depth interview process.

Part of that interview process included meeting with University Council leadership, but not necessarily the entire body.

When the floor was opened for new business, one Council member proposed adding an item to the agenda which would essentially give the Council more say in the hiring decision. The Council voted to add the item to the agenda and then in a 2-to-1 vote, approved the item.

Immediately following the approval of the item, Adams told the Council he felt it was an "ill-informed decision" and that he would give the item some thought, because he was thinking about vetoing it.

This is a story that I will be following pretty closely for the rest of the semester.

Click here to read the article about the University Council meeting Thursday afternoon.

Univ. Council boosts student representation

Yesterday the UGA Executive Committee approved motions to increase student and faculty representation of University Council. I was slightly concerned when I saw the agenda for the meeting, because almost every item being discussed was one that I've already written about. So I was happy when these items were brought up, because they haven't been written about yet and I think it's relevant to students.

There was a pretty lengthy discussion on whether professors should give students until the final examination slot to turn in take home exams. Issues of academic freedom, students rights and "the spirit of the policy" were all brought up, but in the end the motion passed and will go before University Council on Mar. 19.

Click here to find out what all was said and approved at the Executive Committee meeting Thursday afternoon.

Curriculum reform cuts eight majors

The Executive Committee of UGA's University Council voted Jan. 20 to terminate eight graduate majors and the University Council made those terminations official yesterday.

But the word "termination" is slightly misleading in this context, because students can still receive comparable degrees in different departments, or in some cases the programs were just consolidated to make things easier for the departments.

Click here to read more about the major terminations.

University Council moves to cut programs, add engineering

The University Council Executive Committee approved proposals yesterday to implement civil, electrical and mechanical engineering majors. This puts UGA one step closer to actually receiving permission to add these majors. The next step in the process is for the University Council to OK the requests, and then they will go to the Georgia Board of Regents.

I reported Jan. 15 the response from Georgia Tech about the prospect of UGA gaining these majors, which will duplicate some of the course offerings available at Tech. This is a big move for UGA and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Arnett Mace said during the meeting yesterday that the university needs this program to enhance opportunities of being accepted into the Association of American Universities. Click here to read more about items the Executive Committee approved.