UA-R-GC-1914-01-01-1989-11_Page-022

N,)vember 9, 1989 The River Club MINUTES ACADEMIC & RESEARCH COMMITTEE THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO Wednesday 9:00 a.m. At tending: Mrs. Brown, Mr. Hedlund, Mr. Hyde, Mrs. Moore, Dr. Pedersen, Mrs. Sage, D ~ . Simpson (Acting Chairman), Dr. Toepfer. Also present: Mr. Morgan, Mrs. Covey R~porting: Ms. Blakemore President Pedersen introduced Mr. Marston Morgan, AUC's new Director of Facilities Planning and Construction, and Mrs. Christine Covey, who is now AUC's Washington Representative. 1 . Agenda The agenda was adopted. 2. Minutes The minutes of the May 1989 meeting were approved. 3. Report on New Faculty President Pedersen reported that the University hired 33 new full-time faculty in 1989, of whom four are filling new positions called for in the Long Range Plan in biology, theatre, art and art history, and construction engineering, and the other 29 are replacing . faculty who terminated their appointments for various reasons including retirement, end of contract, and personal situations. The percentage of Americans on the faculty is below the proportion called for in the Protocol, and it is hoped that the improved compensation approved by the Board in May 1989 may result in more Americans being recruited for appointments beginning in September 1990. He also noted that the faculty is undergoing strains as the core curriculum is introduced and as the larger numbers of students admitted in the last few years move through the upper classes. It may be necessary to request permission of the Board to hire two or three more faculty in addition to the seven new positions already approved to ease class sizes in some areas. The student body now numbers 3650, and by Fall 1990 it may come close to 4000. The Long Range Plan calls for an increase in the student-faculty ratio from 14 to one to 17 to one, but some classes such as Sc ientific Thinking, a new Core course, have 120 students each. 4. Core Curriculum All Core Curriculum courses were introduced this year except Philosophical 1'hinking, which will be offered in 1990-91. The Sophomore Seminar will start in 1990- ~ 1 with the addition of four more faculty. The Dean of the Faculty requested more 1aculty to teach the seminar, but the President decided that first we should try to l·eallocate existing faculty to cover it. Therefore, it remains to be seen whethe