The Executive Committee of Academic Council passed most items of its agenda concerning university structures and policies without additional consultation during its Tuesday meeting.

Discussion also took place regarding the formation of an ad hoc committee to look into discrimination issues. The six-member committee is to be made up of two undergraduate students, one graduate student, one executive committee member and two faculty members.

The ad hoc committee currently is lacking a second faculty member and Jacqueline Wright, secretary for Academic Governance and professor in the College of Nursing, requested another member of the executive committee be able to join the gender-identity group.

"We've had no luck in getting faculty," Wright said. "This has postponed us in getting the committee together."

The executive committee voted to get the opinions of the other gender identity committee members before making a decision to change the committee's makeup.

The committee also opted not to send a request for a name change from the Department of Agricultural Engineering to university committees. The new name would be the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering.

The executive committee also looked into a proposal for a new School of Planning, Design, and Construction that would exist under the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the College of Social Science.

The committee referred the proposal to the University Graduate Council and the University Committee on Academic Policy.

The meeting mainly focused on Provost Lou Anna Simon's proposals concerning integrative studies, graduate education and residential options. She asked which, if any, committees would be most appropriate to clarify or approve her plans. No proposals concerning unit restructuring were proposed.

Jo Ann Beckwith, director of the University Committee on Curriculum, said during the meeting that the reconstruction issues are the heart of Simon's proposals. She asked the provost to make sure she remains public with those decisions as well as the proposals made available Tuesday.

"It would be extremely beneficial if that could come out as soon as it could," Beckwith said.