Members of the Academic Council discussed Thursday afternoon two new proposals that call for the establishment of a new degree program in the School of Engineering and the merger of two of the Medical Center's basic sciences departments.
The new Master of Engineering Management program would be modeled after, and would have ties to, a similar program already in place at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College.
Hadley Cocks, chair of the mechanical engineering department, said the program would require students to complete four core business and law courses, four engineering courses, a summer internship with an engineering firm and a project report.
"The intent is not to turn engineers into business people," Cocks said, "but to provide them with exposure to management and law."
Although the proposal received endorsements from the deans of the Fuqua School of Business, the School of Law and Thayer, faculty from Fuqua voiced varying degrees of discomfort with the program.
"I am concerned with what may be a shallow curriculum in the business part," said John Hughes, professor of business, adding that such a program would be a poor substitute for a full business degree.
Because almost all business schools require several years of work experience for admission, Cocks said engineering students cannot go immediately into business school. "Life catches up with them," Cocks said, "and they don't come back" to pursue a business education.
Gordon Hammes, vice chancellor for academic affairs at the Medical Center, presented the second proposal, which calls for the merger of the Departments of Molecular Cancer Biology and Pharmacology to form a new Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology.
Hammes said the departure of half of the eight-person molecular cancer biology department faculty during the past two years motivated the proposal. Under the proposition, Tony Means, chair of the pharmacology department, would become chair of the new department.
Jeff Dawson, associate dean of the basic sciences medical curriculum, who spoke on behalf of the basic sciences steering committee, expressed the committee's concern that the merger would exacerbate an intellectual rift between neuropharmacologists and cancer pharmacologists within the Department of Pharmacology. Before it could endorse officially the merger, he said, the committee would "ask for a commitment from the administration to address the problem."
Both resolutions will be discussed and possibly voted on during the council's April 17 meeting.
IN OTHER BUSINESS: President Nan Keohane announced two changes in the University's budgetary authority. As of July 1, the provost will assume budgetary authority over the Office of Student Affairs, which is currently under the authority of the central administration. Simultaneously, the Office of Information Technology will be moved from the authority of the provost to the central administration.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.