Report of the AP Committee

November 2, 2005

1. Late last spring, the AP Comm received a request that we consider the creation of an Undergraduate Curriculum Committee. We began seriously looking into this matter in September, referring to the proposed new group as an Undergraduate Council, with Bob Ehrlich taking the lead on it. We requested input from members of the Senate and those on the provost's deans and directors mailing list. The feedback was mixed --- some strongly against the creation of such a group, and some were in support of it, but with less enthusiasm. Since there was a lack of strong support, and also a lack of firm evidence that such a group was needed, the AP Committee is not going to continue pursuing this item at the current time. We will instead recommend that the system currently in place, where the Office of the Provost serves in a role to identify proposed new programs that need additional review, continue. If at a later time there is good evidence that such an Undergraduate Council should be created, we will be happy to consider the matter again. The person who originally suggested that we look into the creation of such a group is content with our decision, and was involved in the discussions.
2. To help us with our assessment of the academic calendar issues, I've created a web page showing a comparison of GMU's academic calendar with those of eight other state and local institutions. Here is the URL:

   http://mason.gmu.edu/~csutton/APcalendar.html