Senate Year Closes; No Decision on New Degree

When the University Senate concludes its 2002-2003 term today, it will do so without reaching a decision on the most controversial, and perhaps most important, issue facing the body this year: the approval of a doctorate in nursing practice.

Despite two lengthy floor debates--rare in the usually muted body--and even more discussion behind closed committee doors, the Senate will wait until at least next fall to approve the program, a nursing degree, equivalent to the medical doctorate degree, that would be the first of its kind in the nation.

The Senate first heard discussion of the issue at its October meeting and addressed it again in November, but although there was widespread support for the degree in theory, several senators were concerned that the specific requirements of the proposed degree were insufficiently rigorous. The Senate sent the proposal back to committee for revision, and also asked Executive Vice President for Health Sciences Gerald Fischbach to draw up general guidelines for doctorates of practice, which prepare students for practical work in the field rather than for research.

Faculty and administrators in Health Sciences have since revised the proposal and significantly expanded the degree requirements in the hope of winning Senate approval by the end of the academic year. But yesterday, Senate Executive Committee Chair Paul Duby said the revised proposal simply arrived too late for Senate consideration.

"Most people thought that the changes were in the right direction," Duby said, "but we really didn't have enough time to read the draft."

According to Duby, Senior Associate Vice President for Health Sciences Dr. Thomas Morris did not present the revised proposal until last Friday's executive committee meeting--the last day on which new resolutions could be approved for the monthly general body meeting--despite warnings ahead of time that the committee would need at least a week to consider the proposal. In fact, Duby said, the proposal should not even have been brought directly to the executive committee, but should rather have gone through the education committee, which reviews new degree programs.

Considering the significant concerns the Senate had about the original proposal, Duby said, the executive committee did not want to rush the proposal to the floor without serious consideration.

"The decision was unanimous not to put the document on the agenda," Duby said. "I think it's a reasonable decision."

Nonetheless, the decision will come as a blow to advocates of the program, who were already complaining that the Senate was dragging its feet on the issue. In February, the Senate approved a different doctorate of practice degree, a doctorate in physical therapy, with much less debate. The decision drew a charge of unequal treatment from members of the nursing faculty.

Senators who are critical of the program deny that charge, but the decision to leave the issue off the final agenda of the year nonetheless reflects the serious concerns many senators still have about the degree. The earliest the Senate could now approve the program is September, but a final vote is not likely until October at the earliest. Still, Duby said he was hopeful that the program would receive final approval from the Board of Trustees by the end of the calendar year.

What will be on today's agenda, in addition to standard end-of-the-year business, is a discussion of the campus planning process recently begun by University President Lee Bollinger. The Senate originally invited senior members of the architectural firms hired by Bollinger to speak at today's meeting, but the meeting will instead feature only presentations by senior administrators involved in the process, including Executive Vice President for Government and Community Affairs Emily Lloyd and Vice President for Facilities Management Mark Burstein.

Duby said he still hoped to hold an informal discussion with the architectural consultants before the end of the year, but he said he hoped today's meeting will allow senators to ask questions and to begin to discuss their views on the University's space needs. In addition to the general body meeting, a special task force set up by the Senate has begun meeting about how to advise Bollinger on space issues. The group met earlier this month with one of the consultants involved in the process.