Minutes of the Council Meetings >>

1.  MINUTES:   Minutes of the Dean's meeting on 5/29/01 and the Speaker's meeting of 6/12/01 were approved.  The Council also approved the proposal by Dr. Clarkson to reference the minutes as they become available on the School's weekly update (e-Veritas) which is distributed through the e-mail system and to archive the minutes on the Council's website. This will replace distribution of the minutes through the mail system. 

2.  FACULTY DEVELOPMENT, RETENTION AND TURNOVER: Dr. Lewis asked Dr. Rosenthal to report on issues of faculty development, retention and turnover.  Dr. Rosenthal answered that the Committee writing the schoo's self study in preparation for next year's LCME accreditation review has formed a subcommittee on faculty satisfaction and priorities.  This subcommittee recently conducted a survey of faculty opinions, which was returned by 204 of the 1,060 full-time faculty of the school.

The first draft of the survey indicated that 64% of the faculty were either satisfied or very satisfied with UMSM.  However, 68% of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that retention/turnover of faculty is a problem.  The issues most cited as hindering faculty retention were professional development/promotion/salary issues.  These issues were consistent with the finding that only 32% of faculty indicated that they were satisfied or very satisfied with the level of faculty development/mentoring in their departments.

Dr. Rosenthal then shared with the Council the statistics on faculty turnover which showed that there has been no significant change in the numbers of faculty at the rank of Assistant Professor and above leaving UMSM during the past 7 years.  He explained that faculty, especially individuals with clinical responsibilities, are often hired with limited term appointments at the rank of Instructor.  If this faculty group is not included in the calculations, then the number of faculty who left UMSM in the 1995 fiscal year is equal to the number of faculty who left UMSM in the 2001 fiscal year.   He said that this turnover number (76) is slightly greater than the national average, which is 5%. 

The report also showed that the highest (approximately 50%) turnover of faculty in any of the past 7 years occurred among Assistant Professors on the Clinical Educator Track.   Dr. Rosenthal said that exit interviews have brought out that nearly all of these individuals leave for private practice. 

Dr. Awad commented that the large turnover of Clinical Educator Assistant Professor was likely due to academic expectations not being met. He felt that once the faculty finished training, they were obligated to meet service and research requirements with limited time for academic pursuits.  Dr. Sipski wondered if the retention rate for faculty recruited from other institutions was higher that for those recruited from training programs at UM/JMH. Dr. Clarkson agreed that faculty recruited to move here would likely have stronger commitments to stay than those who were homegrown.  Dr. Granville believed that homegrown faculty may not as well recognized as those recruited from other institutions and for whom greater investments were made.

Dr. Sipski stressed the importance of department chairs identifying expectations to newly hired faculty.  Dr. Lewis noted that a task force on faculty development, chaired by Dr. Piedimonte, is actively preparing a report and recommendations for the Council and Dean.

3.  FACULTY SENATE:.  Dr. Lewis informed the Council that he has discussed with Dr. Clarkson the need to increase participation by the UMSM delegation to the University's Faculty Senate and to improve communication between the Council and the UMSM senators.  He suggested that the Council should highlight outstanding issues that need to be taken to the Senate. 

Dr. Thurer said that two types of issues need to be taken to the Senate by our delegation:  issues that are particularly to UMSM; and issues important to the entire university.  Dr. Fishman said that UMSM should support improvement of the Richter Library since this affects the entire university.

Dr. Awad said that the Senate has expressed concerns about the quality of medical care at UMSM.  He explained that some of these concerns relate to the quality of service at JMH and may not be issues of the quality of physician care.  Dr. Clarkson offered that the purchase of Doctor's Hospital should allow us to provide better service to our university family. 

Dr. Clarkson suggested that the Faculty Senate send some members to the UMMG Executive Committee meetings to discuss their concerns.  Dr. Awad offered that some problem areas may already have been be improved and that the problems may be more of perception than reality.  Dr. Clarkson replied that discussions of these problems will always be helpful. 

4.  COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES:       Dr. Mian reported that members have been appointed to most of the open committee positions at UMSM.  He pointed out that there is uncertainty about committee chair positions since different committees use different chair selection procedures and have different rules governing the durations of chair terms. 

Dr. Markoe endorsed limiting the terms of committee chairs to eliminate burnout and also to preclude someone from serving too long in a chair  position.  Dr. Mian suggested that the process of selecting committee chairs and for defining chair terms should be discussed and formalized by the Council.

Dr. Mian also suggested that there should be standards of performance required for faculty to continue to serve on a committee.  Dr. Sipski said that committee chairs should  report to the Council on attendance of committee members and their participation and provide a recommendation on reappointment.  Dr. Lewis responded that the mechanism is in place for committee chairs to report to the Council.  Dr. Awad suggested that appointment letters from the Dean should say that accepting a committee assignment is a responsibility and carries with it the obligation to attend and fully participate. 

Dr. Clarkson supported the concept that committee participation should be part of the promotion process.  He said that the Appointment, Promotion and Tenure Committee should evaluate both the fact that someone is a committee member and also the participation of that faculty member on the committee.  Dr. Mian suggested that committee chairs report to the APT Committee on the participation of committee members.  Dr. Markoe thought that the same outcome can occur if committee chairs report to the Council on faculty participation and the Council reports to the APT Committee.

Dr. Mian continued that committee chairs are already required to report annually to the Council.  He suggested that this report should be submitted to the Office of Faculty and Professional Affairs for incorporation into the APT Committee files.  Dr. Markoe recommended that committee chairs be informed of this requirement and that it should be discussed at the first meeting of each committee each year.  Dr. Awad noted that at least one Council member serves on each committee who should inform the committee chairs and members. 

Dr. Fishman added that committee chairs should be encouraged to bring issues to the Council as these issues develop and that chairs should not wait if a member is not participating. 

5.  SCHOOL COUNCIL: The next Speaker's meeting of the School Council will be held  July 10, 2001 in the Ryder Trauma Center, Room T121 at 5 p.m.  The next Dean,s  Meeting will be on July 24, 2001 at 5 p.m in the Ryder Trauma Center, T121.  These meetings are open to all faculty, as are all Council meetings.   

The meeting was adjourned at 7:01 p.m.

Myron Rosenthal, Ph.D.                       

Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Professional Affairs