The Steering Committee of the General Faculty, comprised of five Councils of the General Faculty, convened on Monday to discuss current and past projects as well as goals for the upcoming year. The Council on Benefits implemented a cap on out-of-pocket health care costs at 7 percent of employees' yearly income to assist lower-paid Dartmouth employees. The council also discussed plans for a new wellness program to be created during the 2012-2013 academic year. Over the past year, the Council on Graduate Studies approved masters programs in heath care delivery science and biophysical chemistry, and reviewed the masters programs in comparative literature, computer science and molecular and cellular biology. The most notable increase in enrollment occurred within the biology graduate program, which the council attributed to the construction of the new Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center and the hiring of new faculty members. The Council on Libraries focused on expanding Dartmouth's collections and helping additional universities join Borrow Direct, a library exchange service that offers over 50 million volumes. The Council on Sponsored Activities announced the establishment of a new system that determines and manages conflicts of interest in research projects while the Council on Computing reported on the current state of information technology at the College. The Steering Committee's attendance policy forbids members of the press from directly quoting statements made during the meeting and from identifying members in attendance.
The Obama administration unveiled a new plan to revamp teacher preparation programs on Friday, Inside Higher Ed reported. Teaching programs whose graduates produce the best-performing students will receive financial support, while programs with teachers who fail to meet standards will be required to improve or face termination. The plan, which will replace the TEACH Grant program, will measure tangible results of students' performances and will not base evaluations on teacher preparation qualifications, according to Inside Higher Ed. It will also seek to incentivize programs that graduate a large number of minority teachers in an attempt to address the imbalance between the number of minority teachers and minority students. Due to the extensive data needed before programs can be evaluated, it will be several years before the plan's effectiveness can be assessed, Inside Higher Ed reported.
