The APSA Council met April 5, 2003 at the Midwest Political Science Association's Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. The following are highlights from the meeting:

• Recognized the approaching retirement of Sheilah Mann and saluted her service to the Association.
• Heard reports from the Council Working Groups in the areas of Applied Political Scientists, Work and Family Issues, Public Presence Support for All APSA Members, and Political Scientists in non-Ph.D.-Granting Institutions. The reports will be followed up with continued discussions and action proposals at the Council Meeting in August.
• Heard updates from the Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy, the Mentoring Program for Women and People of Color, the Task Force on Graduate Education, and the Committee on Civic Education and Engagement.
• Set May 1st as the deadline for submitting Constitutional Amendments and Resolutions so they can be published in the July issue of PS.
• Approved a procedure for the use of email to submit signatures when called for in nominating documents, amendments, and resolutions, and approved the Annual Business Meeting rules.
• Clarified in the By-Laws that the Editor of Perspectives of Politics is a member of the Council along with the Editor of APSR. Authorized use of email voting in all-member elections.
• Declared a resolution opposing a U.S. attack on Iraq submitted by the New Political Science Section to be out of order, but asked the Program Chairs to provide a Hyde Park session at the Annual Meeting in August on the topic to allow members to voice their own views. The resolution was deemed to conflict with the APSA constitutional provision stating, “[APSA] will not commit its members on questions of public policy nor take positions not immediately concerned with its direct purpose”(Article II Sec. 2).
• Applauded the achievements of the editors of the APSR and Perspectives on Politics.
• Added “and Public Affairs” to the name of the Centennial Center. Approved the creation of an Advisory Board for the Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs.
• Approved the creation of the Status committee for Asian Pacific Americans in the Profession.
• Removed subscription fees from the Personnel Services Newsletter to make access to job listings free to all APSA members and changed the dues structure for the Departmental Services Program to reflect services received.
• Approved a new Organized Section for Qualitative Methods and the proposal by the Public Policy Section to co-produce a journal with the Policy Studies Organization.
• Approved the budget, including a 3% increase in dues.
• Changed the start/end dates for standing and award committees to September 1ÐAugust 31. Committee terms previously ran from January 1 to December 31.
• Approved the 2004 Annual Meeting Committee and Small Research Grant Finalists.
• Approved a modest draw from the Board Designated fund to help launch a Conference on Teaching and Learning in Political Science.
• Approved use of the new APSA logo.

On April 30th, the Council also received a proposed resolution submitted by the New Political Science Section calling for the American Political Science Association to support the Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute's campaign for the right of all Americans to have access to a free public higher education. While applauding the activities of political scientists to be engaging in important issues of public policy, the Council has ruled that this resolution is in violation of the APSA Constitution and is out of order, noting both how specific language in the resolution conflicted with our constitutional statement not to be partisan, and that the public policy matter involved in the resolution did not meet the test of “immediate concern” with our direct purpose.