Minutes
Faculty Senate Meeting
April 16, 2003
John Douglass, vice chair, called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m.
Present: Professors Ahrens, Brenner, Douglass, Forst, Heintze, Irvine Belson, Jennings, Jernigan,
Kravetz, Langbein, Olmsted, Riddick, Riley, Rubenstein, Schaeff, Sha, Williams. Provost
Kerwin.
Absent: Professors Burke, Doolittle, Hakim, Kehoe, Rosenbloom
The minutes of the April 2, 2003 meeting were approved.
Special Report on the Provost’s Recommendations to President Ladner Resulting from the
Graduate Program Review
Neil Kerwin presented the following recommendations, with a commentary, on the outcome of
the graduate program review. The recommendations will be submitted to President Ladner for
his review and consideration, with a formal report to be presented to the Board of Trustees for
action in May.
Doctoral Programs
Continue and strengthen the doctoral program in the School of International Service.
The SIS program is central to the mission of the institution. SIS has a large faculty with
numerous active and influential scholars. The program has a large and diverse applicant pool,
which draws national and international students. The program has also had, for several years, a
low admit rate and high rates of conversion. Students in the SIS doctoral program are active in
scholarly endeavors and are well placed after receiving their degrees.
Continue and strengthen the doctoral program in the School of Public Affairs.
The SPA doctoral program brings a large and diverse group of faculty to the service of its
students. Those students proceed through the program at an admirable pace. The program has in
each of three academic units faculty who are recognized as national leaders in their fields.
Alumni of the program occupy important positions in universities and colleges throughout the
United States; the alumni group also includes scholars who have produced significant
publications. The SPA program attracts a diverse student body, as does the School of
International Service.
Continue the doctoral program in psychology.
The doctoral program in psychology attracts large numbers of qualified applicants seeking to
study with faculty who have strong records in research and publication and also strong records in
sponsored research that directly, or indirectly, supports the doctoral program. Entering classes
consist of highly qualified students who proceed through the program successfully and move on
to occupy key positions in the profession.
Continue the doctoral program in economics.
With regard to the mission of the university, the economics program focuses quite explicitly on a
range of public-sector related issues. The faculty is active in scholarship related to the areas of
concentration in the doctoral program, and their publication records are solid. Classes of entering
students are strong academically, and the alumni are well placed in national and international
organizations that carry explicit research agendas.
Continue the doctoral program in history.
As the recommendations of the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences underscored, perhaps
the strongest reason for continuation of this program is the sustained and extraordinary
scholarship of the faculty. The clear impact of that scholarship on program graduates is
considerable. The students display remarkable achievements in research and publication, while
they’re in later stages of their dissertation work, and after they leave AU.
Continue the doctoral program in anthropology.
This program has made great strides since the last program review. Applications to the program
are increasing, and the program has been successful in attracting high-quality candidates. The
program’s faculty is made up of well-versed scholars, and the emerging emphasis on race,
gender, and social justice links the program to the institution’s mission. There is a clear
expectation that anthropology’s doctoral program will achieve national prominence in five years,
one of the goals outlined in the 15-point plan.
Terminate the doctoral program in chemistry.
The program has experienced a decline in student interest over the past several years. External
support that is vital to maintaining a high level of graduate work in the sciences has weakened in
the past several years. And the recent loss of a major figure in the program’s development was a
considerable blow. Provost Kerwin said that while the department’s faculty are unhappy with the
recommendation to terminate the program, he believes they are committed to enhancing the
graduate offerings at the master’s level.
Terminate the doctoral program in statistics.
The program has attracted well-qualified students in the past, and they’ve been successful.
However, the numbers of new students entering the program have declined dramatically in recent
years. Perhaps most important, key faculty members have retired or resigned. The program’s
faculty remain strong and include a former scholar-teacher of the year, but the numbers, in terms
of both incoming students and impact on the faculty, led to this recommendation.
Terminate the doctoral program in mathematics education.
The program has also experienced declining interest from prospective students. External support
to attract minority students has been successful, and with assistance from the college, has
brought new minority students to the program. While that resulted in enrollments, the persistence
of those students was less than hoped for. The faculty is relatively small, and those related
directly and substantially to the program are inconsistently involved in dissertation supervision.
Where the faculty are producing writing, they are not writing in the field that would have
greatest impact on the national reputation of the graduating students.
Terminate the doctoral program in education.
The doctoral program in education has a somewhat larger student body. While most of the
students enter on a part-time basis, the qualifications of the incoming students are not remarkable
in any way, relative to university-wide standards. The members of the faculty, accomplished in
their own right, are inconsistently involved in the supervision of doctoral students. Some are not
actively producing scholarship in fields that correspond to areas of focus within the doctoral
program.
In recent years, the School of Education has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to
education in the District of Columbia; the most promising area for ongoing contributions to
education in the District is the area of teacher training. The School of Education will help expand
a substantial program, Teach for America. The school also has a commitment, in concert with
external partners, to assist in the effort to rebuild the educational infrastructure in Iraq.
Terminate the doctoral program in sociology.
The program is relatively large, with strong interest locally. The faculty, however, is quite small
and quite diverse in its areas of research interests. Previous program reviews noted that the
doctoral faculty resources in sociology were considerably strengthened by the collaboration with
Justice, Law, and Society in the School of Public Affairs. That collaboration has ended, however,
and the resources are no longer available on a regular basis. Moreover, recent scholarship and
publication by the sociology’s faculty does not relate closely to the program’s stated fields of
concentration and student interest.
Provost Kerwin said, under the circumstances, he saw no reasonable prospect for the program to
rise to the level of national prominence hoped for. He acknowledged, however, the contributions
that the department’s faculty can continue to make to doctoral education through collaboration
with other units, most obviously in the area of race, gender, and social justice, in the department
of anthropology.
Master’s Degrees
In the School of Communication, continue the master’s offerings in journalism; public
communication; and film, video, and electronic media.
The School of Communication has just gone through a highly successful re-accreditation visit.
The results of that visit are reflected in the graduate program reviews. Enrollments in SOC’s
master’s programs are robust, as are the faculty resources available to the students.
In Kogod School of Business, continue the master of business administration; the master of
science in taxation; the master of science in finance; and the newly created master of science
in information technology management.
Kogod has also completed a highly successful re-accreditation process, and while the focus of
that re-accreditation was not exclusively on graduate programming, it was devoted heavily to it.
The re-accreditation outcome is an external endorsement of Kogod’s approach and plan, which
deserves further support from the university. (The master of science in accounting and the master
of science in information systems have already been terminated.)
In the School of International Service, continue the master’s programs in international
affairs; international communication;, international development; and peace and conflict
resolution. Also continue to support the school’s joint programs with the College of Arts and
Science, the Washington College of Law, and the Wesley Theological Seminar.
The critical issue facing SIS is the current size of its graduate offerings. The School of
International Service receives more applications than any other school of international studies in
the United States; it has the largest student body; happily, it also has the largest number of
American minority students of any school of its kind in the U.S. Size, therefore, is a serious
issue, and some members of the SIS faculty are concerned that the size of the graduate classes
may indeed be a threat to program quality. Over the next several years, the question of
downsizing SIS’s graduate offerings will be a major agenda item.
In the School of Public Affairs, terminate the master of political science in comparative
politics, with the expectation that students pursuing comparative politics as a focus will
matriculate in the School of International Service. Also under consideration, with a final
decision pending later this spring, is possible termination of the master of science in human
resource management. Continue the M.A. in political science; the master of science in justice;
the master of public administration, including its Key Executive degree; the master of public
policy; and the master of science in organizational development.
Dr. Kerwin indicated that each of the programs slated for continuation has solid or increasing
enrollments, with well-qualified incoming students. At least four of the programs have already
developed national reputations. Termination of the master of science in human resources, if it
occurs, will result from declining enrollments and declining student qualifications.
In the College of Arts and Sciences, terminate or consolidate the degrees in toxicology;
development banking; financial economics; education leadership; education technology;
specialized studies in education; French studies; statistics for public policy; and Russian.
Many master’s offerings in the college will remain, and appropriate action will be taken in each
instance to strengthen and to elevate them to a level of competitiveness that faculty in the
programs have determined to be appropriate. The programs to continue are: public anthropology;
studio art; statistics; mathematics; economics; the master of arts in teaching; health promotion;
history; the teaching of English as a second language; literature; creative writing; arts
management; philosophy; psychology; art history; biology; environmental science; chemistry;
computer science; international training and education; Spanish/Latin American studies; dance;
and sociology.
Additional Comments and Conclusion
During his presentation, Provost Kerwin emphasized two key points to keep in mind.
• His recommendations were based on the recommendations received from the deans in each of
the academic units. The current state of each program was examined, as was each program’s past
performance. These analyses were done in order for the major teaching units to make informed
decisions about where to invest scarce resources.
• None of the decisions to terminate should be seen as rejections of the contributions that
programs have made to American University in the past. On the contrary, those accomplishments
will always be properly acknowledged.
Provost Kerwin concluded by noting that the Faculty Senate had been properly concerned with
the consequences of the recommendations for the university as a whole. He said he firmly
believed that the actions will reaffirm the importance of the centrality of graduation education at
American University. He said that the university had already begun what will be a multi-year
effort to enhance the doctoral programs, in the form of increasing the minimum level of stipends.
The next step will be to increase enrollments in some of the master’s programs.
A second consequence, he observed, will be that AU’s classification under the Carnegie system
will be altered from doctoral extensive to doctoral intensive. He said the significance of that
outcome is unclear, as is the future of the classification system itself. That change will not occur
until the university no longer reports that it is granting doctoral degrees in the sufficient number
of fields needed to satisfy the minimum number for the doctoral extensive category.
Third, he noted, is the question of diversity. He said the programs slated for continuation all
contribute, in some important way, to diversity. These contributions will continue and they will
grow. He added that he would challenge the assertion that it is the unique, or even special,
responsibility of one, or a small number, of graduate programs to carry forward the institution’s
commitment to diversity. Quite the contrary, every program is enriched by a diverse faculty and
a diverse student body.
Provost Kerwin thanked the Senate for the concerns that were expressed during what was a
difficult process. He commended the university community for its serious engagement in the
graduate review process and for the civility that characterized that process.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:50 p.m.