CAM has been working for the past year to produce proposals for restructuring key areas of faculty governance and oversight in KSAS to succeed the Homewood Academic Council. Below are materials related to recommendations for appointment, tenure, and promotion procedures. They are works in progress and intended as a way of sparking conversation and soliciting feedback.  

Read a summary of the proposed new procedures: promotion and appointment to tenure-line faculty positions shared with KSAS departments in September 2025.

Read a summary of the proposed procedures: promotion and appointment to teaching, research, and practice faculty positions shared with KSAS departments in September 2025.

Read a statement about procedures during the transition to the new system shared with KSAS departments in September 2025.

View the slide deck used at the outreach meetings with departments, centers, programs, and institutes in fall 2025.

CAM welcomes your feedback on these materials.

More materials will be posted as they become available. 

CAM has been working for the past year to produce proposals for restructuring key areas of faculty governance and oversight in KSAS to succeed the Homewood Academic Council. Below are materials related to the shared governance model. They are works in progress and intended as a way of sparking conversation and soliciting feedback.  

Materials will be posted as they become available. 

The members of the CAM Governance Subcommittee are:

Chris Nealon, Professor, English / Co-chair
Robbie Shilliam, Professor, Political Science / Co-chair
Sharon Achinstein, Professor, English
Peter Armitage, Professor, Physics & Astronomy / Senator
Bertrand García-Moreno, Professor, Biophysics and KSAS Executive Vice Dean
Emily Fisher, Associate Teaching Professor, Biology
Dora Malech, Professor, Writing Seminars / Senator
Dean Moyar, Professor, Philosophy and KSAS Vice Dean
Alison Papadakis, Teaching Professor, Psychological & Brain Sciences / Senator
Dan Reich, Professor, Physics & Astronomy
David Savitt, Professor, Mathematics / Senator

CAM has been working for the past year to produce proposals for restructuring key areas of faculty governance and oversight in KSAS to succeed the Homewood Academic Council. Below are materials related to other functions currently under HAC’s charge. They are works in progress and intended as a way of sparking conversation and soliciting feedback.  

Materials will be posted as they become available. 

The Core Academic Matters (CAM) Committee was established in Spring 2024 to develop a proposal for the KSAS-only body or bodies to succeed the Homewood Academic Council (HAC). The membership of CAM was created in conversation among the Krieger members of HAC, the KSAS Faculty Senate, and the KSAS Dean’s Office. CAM includes faculty across disciplines, ranks, and statuses so that it is broadly representative of KSAS faculty expertise and experience. CAM includes current and past elected members of both HAC and the KSAS Faculty Senate. Via internal nomination and election, CAM established its own leadership team and subcommittee structures. The faculty who are members of CAM are listed out below. You can also view an archive of communications related to the establishment of CAM and updates on its work.  

CAM developed and approved its charge in summer 2024. View CAM’s charge.

The first phase of CAM’s work in AY2024-2025 was divided into four streams (Tenure & Promotion, Academic Review & Assessment, Faculty Norms, and Architecture). The current phase is organized into three streams (Bylaws and Procedures, Governance, Outreach) that will bring the work to a conclusion in AY2025-2026. Read the subcommittee charges and rosters.

Sharon Achinstein, Professor, English / CAM co-secretary
Dan Reich, Professor, Physics and Astronomy/ CAM co-secretary
Ibrahima (Ibou) Bah, Associate Professor, Physics and Astronomy
Richard Bett, Professor, Philosophy
Amy Binder, Professor, Sociology
Stephen J. Campbell, Professor, History of Art
Bill Egginton, Professor, Modern Languages and Literatures
Lisa Feigenson, Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Emily Fisher, Associate Teaching Professor, Biology
Thomas Haine, Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences
Clara Han, Professor, Anthropology
M. Ali Khan, Professor, Economics
Julian Lim, Associate Professor, History
Stephan McCandliss, Research Professor, Physics and Astronomy
Chris Nealon, Professor, English
Sarah O’Byrne, Senior Lecturer, Governmental Studies, Advanced Academic Programs
Alison Papadakis, Teaching Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Eric Puchner, Associate Professor, The Writing Seminars
David Savitt, Professor, Mathematics
Trina Schroer, Professor, Biology
Robbie Shilliam, Professor, Political Science
Dawn Teele, Associate Professor, Political Science
Sunita Thyagarajan, Associate Teaching Professor, Chemistry
Rochelle Tobias, Professor, Modern Languages and Literatures
Darryn Waugh, Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences
Sarah Woodson, Professor, Biophysics
Chris Celenza, Dean / CAM Chair
Bertrand García-Moreno, Professor, Biophysics and KSAS Executive Vice Dean
Dean Moyar, Professor, Philosophy and KSAS Vice Dean

Please refer to the websites for current faculty and shared governance bodies in KSAS:

Homewood Academic Council
KSAS Faculty Senate
Shared Governance Council

Since the late 1800s, the Homewood Academic Council has been the principal body of shared university governance between the Krieger and Whiting Schools. It was first convened by Daniel Coit Gilman, president from 1876 to 1908.

The principle of shared governance recognizes the interdependence of a university’s board of trustees, president and senior administration, its faculty and its students.

Read the AAUP statement on shared governance.

While the maintenance of institutional resources, management of endowments, and development are the principal responsibility of president and trustees, the intellectual and pedagogical climate – matters pertaining to faculty status, quality of research, and curriculum – are areas where faculty at Hopkins hold primary authority. The exercise of that authority is through Homewood Academic Council (HAC) – a council of twelve senior faculty elected by the faculty each for a four-year term. The membership is represented by two (2) members from the Social Sciences, three (3) from the Humanities, three (3) from the Natural Sciences, and four (4) from the School of Engineering. The Provost, Dean and vice-Dean of Arts and Sciences, and Dean and vice-Dean of Engineering are members of the Academic Council without voting privileges. Until recently, the president served as permanent chair of Council, with the provost serving as chair in his absence. The provost attended HAC meetings until 2024. The official formulation of the Council’s responsibilities is known as the “Presidential charge to HAC,” and is in seven parts.

First, the Academic Council reviews all candidates for faculty appointments and promotions, and votes on the appointments it approves. It votes on the hiring and promotion of Research track faculty through its Board of Review Standing Committee, and on Teaching and Practice track faculty through its Teaching and Practice Faculty Appointment and Promotion Committee. Those votes are regarded as a recommendation to the president and board, through which the Tenure Advisory Committee is given function of review.

Second, HAC reviews all proposals for new degrees and new majors and minors in the Krieger and Whiting Schools and considers “all matters of curricular and instructional policy that, in the Council’s judgment, have a significant bearing on the quality of the Schools’ academic programs.”

In recent times, that has also included COVID19 mitigation policies, the question of covered grades for first-semester freshmen, the CUE2 initiative on undergrad education, the status of public-facing research in weighing promotion decisions, the problems of bias in student course evaluations as they affect faculty reviews.

HAC has approved new programs in the Advanced Academic Programs. HAC’s purview includes the approval of new academic titles, and the standardizing of career tracks for non-tenure-track faculty. HAC initiated its own Teaching and Practice Faculty Committee in 2021.

Third, Council conducts periodic reviews of all departments in the Krieger and Whiting Schools; as well as area-studies centers and programs involved in teaching.

Fourth, Council can advise the Deans, the Provost and the President on academically important questions of institutional policy and strategy. Full-time faculty members can petition Academic Council to discuss a matter of concern by submitting a written request to the Council Secretary, or the Dean of Arts and Sciences or to the Dean of Engineering.

Fifth, the Academic Council reviews all candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in all academic units of the Johns Hopkins University and will recommend the awarding of this degree to those candidates it approves. Currently, this is achieved through the Standing Committee through which it has representation: the Graduate Board.

Sixth, Academic Council considers “cases of alleged academic misconduct, faculty discipline, and appeals from negative promotion decisions, and will take action as necessary.”

Seventh, HAC can advise the administration regarding “academic grievances that are brought before the Council by the Deans, the Provost, or the President; or that are brought to the Council’s attention by its subcommittees or, in what it deems to be extraordinary cases, by members of the faculty.”