The Steering Committee of the General Faculty yesterday approved a new graduate program related to health care, allocated funding to upgrade the College's computer network and reviewed reports from a variety of faculty committees.
The announcements came as part of the Steering Committee's review of reports issued by four College councils.
The Steering Committee approved a $2.85 million proposal by the Council on Computing to convert the College's LocalTalk network to Ethernet -- technology that will allow for faster and more direct communications between computers.
"At its inception 10 years ago, the network was an innovative and state of the art collection of hardware and software ... but by today's standards, it is long overdue for replacement," the annual report from the Council on Computing stated.
The estimated date of completion was not discussed but administrators told The Dartmouth during Summer term that the project would take two or three years to complete.
The report states that during the year the Council on Computing discussed the state of computing at Dartmouth and the direction it should follow. The Council also assigned funding priorities to its various projects.
The Council awarded the highest priority to updating the campus network.
The Council also gave high priority to modernizing classroom infrastructure and creating another cluster of instructional computers similar to the one located in the basement of Kiewit Computation Center.
The Council on Graduate Studies announced a new doctoral program in Evaluative Clinical Sciences.
"The Evaluative Clinical Sciences are a group of closely interrelated disciplines which are considered to be central to the analysis and improvement of the health care system," the program's proposal states.
The program will begin with between three and five students and grow to accommodate 20 students. On average it will take between three and six years to complete the degree.
Drawing on the resources of the Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences, the Koop Institute and the Department of Community and Family Medicine, the program is designed to "provide what is likely to be recognized as a unique and excellent education program," the proposal states.
The proposal also states that the program will probably be recognized as one of the leading programs in the country.
The Council on the Libraries focused last year on planning for the expansion of Baker Library. This year the Council will investigate increasing its library staff, which has not occurred in 10 years, according to College President James Freedman. It will also examine other issues such as program planning and technology.
The Steering Committee also set the agenda for the faculty meeting on Oct. 31. The only item is a report from Freedman.
