Two presentations were made at the Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday about a new proposed Bachelor of Science degree as well as a new Ph.D. program.

The proposed undergraduate degree would be for bioinformatics and computation biology, and the Ph.D. would be for business and technology. These were the first readings for both programs, with a decision to be made at the senate’s next meeting, scheduled for March 6.

Michael Crum, associate dean of logistics operations and management information systems, said new courses would be offered for the Ph.D. program, but its creation would not cause the College of Business to stop offering the courses that are currently being offered.

“We still have a lot of work to get it into place,” Crum said. “We are hoping to start [the new Ph.D. program] in the fall of ’08 or spring of ’09.”

Gregory Palermo, president of the Faculty Senate and professor of architecture, said proposals such as these usually go through a process of reviews, during which they go from the curriculum committee and the academic affairs council, to the executive board of the senate and finally to the senate itself.

“The bylaws call for [a proposal] to be published and presented at the first meeting, and then voted on at the subsequent meeting,” Palermo said. “Usually this [whole process] takes two to three years.”

After minor technical difficulties in the form of an uncooperative laptop, the senate heard a report on a review of the office for business and finance given by Jack Girton, editor of the report and associate professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology.

The task force that compiled the report made three recommendations to the office for business and finance: acknowledge the positive, improve communication and look to the future.

Girton said the task force was not a group setting out to solve a crisis, but instead, was out to look at how the office works and make suggestions.

“All in all, this has been a very positive report with many people impressed with the amount of responsibility they do, and the difficult situations they have to encounter,” Girton said.