Vol.25, No. 05	Oct. 1, 1999

Initiative in Bioengineering Approved; Also Reorganization of Uptown Faculty

At the first meeting of its 1999-2000 session on Sept. 24, the University Senate approved three resolutions from the Education Committee. Only one, a proposal to establish a department of biomedical engineering, encountered a significant objection—and that was about procedure.

Health Sciences Faculty

With only minor amendments, the Senate unanimously endorsed a proposal to reorganize faculty at the uptown campus into four separate faculties, of Medicine, Dental and Oral Surgery, Nursing, and Public Health, with the addition of a single Faculty of the Health Sciences incorporating them all.

Herbert Pardes, dean of the faculty of medicine and vice president for Health Sciences, will lead the new united faculty.

Also adopted with minor amendments but without dissent was a proposal to establish a new Institute for Cancer Genetics.

Bioengineering Proposal

The bioengineering proposal encountered no substantive opposition. However, Paul Duby, chairman of the Senate Executive committee and an engineering professor, who praised the measure, objected to the procedures followed in bringing it to the Senate. He said the letter from the Provost's Office transmitting the proposal to the Senate Education Committee had said the initiative had the support of the faculty of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, but in fact no consultation with the full faculty or vote had taken place. He proposed an amendment to the resolution (accepted as friendly by Education Committee chair Letty Moss-Salentijn) deleting the words "and faculty" from a clause saying "the proposal has been approved by the Dean and Faculty of the Fu Foundation School."

Engineering Dean Zvi Galil, who attended the meeting, acknowledged a "gross oversight" in the presentation of the proposal and apologized "for not following rules we did not know." He outlined preparations he had undertaken for a new department that he said were highly promising for both students and faculty. He also said he knew of no requirement that faculty must vote to establish a new department. He outlined consultations he had carried out, including announcements to department chairs in early 1998 and to the full faculty at meetings in May of 1998 and May of 1999 that had encountered no objections. Galil said that while the Provost's office might not have stated the faculty position precisely, he trusted that the faculty do support the initiative.

President George Rupp said he understood Galil's comments to mean that future proposals to establish departments should include a faculty vote, even though there is no formal requirement of that kind. He said he sensed virtually unanimous support for the proposal at the 1998 and 1999 Fu School faculty meetings, and stressed the importance of rapid action, since final adoption of the measure would require two Trustee meetings.

The Senate voted unanimously for the amended resolution.

The next Senate meeting is on Friday, Oct. 22, at 1:15 pm in 301 Uris. Anyone with CUID is welcome.