Relevant Documents

This protocol was developed in 2012 to determine when the Senate should be involved. However, relatively recent changes in how we manage many of our professional degree programs suggest that some clarifications are in order.

The proposing unit (typically a department, school, or college) must complete this Academic Program Registration  form. It too has inconsistencies that need to be cleared up.

There are three passages in the Bylaws that are perhaps relevant to the approval process.

As an agent of the University Faculty, the following Bylaw text suggests that the Faculty Senate should be involved whenever a foreign educational collaboration raises policy questions that are “general in nature”:

The functions of the University Faculty shall be to consider questions of educational policy which concern more than one college, school, or separate academic unit, or are general in nature; and to recommend to the Board of Trustees, with the approval of the appropriate college or school faculty, the establishment, modification, or discontinuance of degrees. (Article XIII, Section 2)

On the other hand, the following Bylaw text has been used as a basis for excluding Senate involvement whenever the program sits entirely within a a particular college:

Subject to the authority of the University Faculty on all matters affecting general educational policy, it shall be the duty of each separate college or school faculty to determine the entrance requirements for its own students; to prescribe and define courses of study for them; to determine the requirements for such degrees as are offered to students under its jurisdiction;  … to enact and enforce rules for the guidance and supervision of its students in their academic work; and in general to exercise jurisdiction over the academic interests of students and all other educational matters in the particular college or school. (Article XIV, Section 2)

Finally, his Bylaw passage seems to suggests that the Graduate Faculty should have a role to play if the program is at the Masters or PhD level:

… The Graduate Faculty shall have jurisdiction over all graduate work and any degree beyond the first degrees given by any college or school except in the case, described below, of the Graduate School of Medical Sciences. (Article XIV, Section 4)

These snippets from the University Bylaws were written before joint degree programs with foreign entities ever existed. Perhaps its time for a review?

Finally, there is this template document for developing a Memorandum of Agreement. Is the academic freedom section adequate? When completed it is confidential. Is there a way to make certain portions public?

On academic freedom, there is the University Statement and well as  the discussion of that  topic in Cornell’s Middle States Self-Study (p. 30-31).

Relevant Players

The Graduate School and the General Committee

This  webpage  indicates that the Graduate School still oversees some professional degree programs while the responsibilities for others have been delegated  the colleges.  This distinction figures in the 2012 protocol and needs to be clarified.

The Faculty Senate and CAPP 

Here is what the Committee on Academic Programs and Policies  charge says (in part):

…concerns itself with academic programs and policies which are independent of or extend beyond the single or joint jurisdiction of a school or college faculty. It initially screens formal proposals for new academic programs, degrees, or policies.

Do international collaborations “extend beyond” the proposing college?

The last time the Senate approved  an IJDP was in 2004 .  It was Masters-level and involved the SHA and Nanyang Tech University in Singapore. See the Resolution, this background document, and this discussion (pages 3-6) at the Oct 13, 2004 Senate.

Global Cornell and the International Council

Global Cornell has an International Council  that works with the Vice Provost for International Affairs.  It helps develop useful guidelines such  as this engagement-with-China: FAQ  and these ethical guidelines for international collaboration.

Global Cornell maintains a Registry of Memorandums of Agreement that lists 100s of recent and ongoing international collaborations. The MOA’s are not public but they always include academic freedom  protections. These protections need to be publicized as they are not fully appreciated among the faculty.

The International Council is not involved in the approval process of IDDPs