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May 2002

Committee on the Status of Women And Minorities Minutes from Meeting on May 15, 2002 from 4:00 -5:15 PM, Sanger Hall Room 1-038

Members Present: Klein (presiding), Biber, Biskobing, Burns, Essah, Hampton (ex officio), Lebman, Purcell, Setien, Spottswood
Guests: Gleason, Newsome

1. Welcome: H. H. ("Dickie") Newsome, Jr. M. D., Dean, School of Medicine and Bill Gleason, Senior Associate Dean for Finance and Administration and COSOWAM members were welcomed to the meeting.
2. Minutes: The minutes from the April 17, 2002 meeting were approved.
3. Update on Current Activities:
1. Discussion with Dr. Newsome
1. Recruitment and Retention of Faculty
   Dr. Newsome opened his conversation with COSOWAM members with remarks concerning the recruitment and retention of women faculty. Dr. Newsome noted that the increased number of women attending medical school since 1985** should be reflected by an upward trend in the number of women faculty. Dr. Newsome speculated there could be multiple reasons why the numbers of women faculty have not increased. He believes that perceptions of causal factors range from the extremes of "that's just how women are" to "the tunnel is bricked up." Dr. Newsome also discussed Slide 17 "Rank Data-Raw Numbers, 1999-2001 VCU SOM Women Faculty" from the Representative Data Women and Black Faculty 1997-2001 report presented to the Executive Committee of the School of Medicine on May 8, 2002. The information on the slide appears to indicate there is a problem in the small numbers of women at lesser ranks. Dr. Newsome told the group that Peggy Goodwin, Senior Policy and Resource Analyst, will return in July to Administrative Services. Dr. Newsome stated Ms Goodwin will focus upon space analysis as her first priority, Mission Based Management, and then will perform salary analysis, including correlations of rank issues by correlating rank, time, and service factors for faculty.
   Dr. Newsome said that regarding the retention of women and minority faculty member in the SOM, the problem might be less quantitative than qualitative. For example, a small cohort of women can make the loss of even two brilliant women seem a lot. Wendy said it was difficult to ascertain what is going on with retention issues because there is no available data. Wendy asked the Dean for help from his office to run data on "separations" to help COSOWAM look at numbers as a start. The Dean said yes. Bill Gleason said COSOWAM could look at SOM data that currently exists to examine turnover rates and other numbers pertinent to retention issues. COSOWAM will work with Bill and Ann Setien of the Dean's Office to extract useful numbers from current information.
2. Salary issues
   Bill said that retention and salary issues are intertwined. Some departments have increased clinical faculty salaries to retain faculty at every rank. Several clinical areas are struggling financially. It is difficult for such divisions and departments to use positive salary adjustments as a retention strategy. In clinical departments, (but not in basic sciences departments) salaries (averaged) have increased 2.7% for women and 2.3% for men. (This is from salary data run a year ago.) Bill said the Hunter Group is here and will look at physician compensation among other things.
   Stephanie asked what should be done if a young female physician felt a man with equivalent skills received higher compensation. Dr. Newsome said the woman should go talk to her Division and/or Department Chair. She should ask to look at her evaluation. A poor evaluation means no salary increase. A good evaluation needs agreement on what constitutes fair compensation. If the disagreement is not resolved at the department level, it can go to the Dean. The individual can file a grievance if there is not agreement. Eventually the difference can go forward to the Grievance Committee if there is still no agreement. Bill noted that information concerning salaries could be obtained through the Freedom of Information Act if the salaries in question come from state or federal monies. Again, the Hunter Group will be looking at all compensation issues in clinical areas. Dr. Newsome said the SOM might adjust money which supports teaching such as creating a system of master teachers.
3. Chair evaluation
   Next, Dr. Newsome discussed chair evaluation. He said there were three steps he took in evaluating chairs: 1.) He looks at the chairs self-rating. 2.) He talks with Hermes A. Kontos, M.D., VCUHS Vice President for Health Sciences and Sheldon M. Retchin, M.D., VCUHS Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer regarding the performance of individual clinical chairs. 3.) He reviews the results of faculty rating surveys on each chair. (The latter evaluation only has a three- percent response rate. This may be due to the use of an electronic evaluation system, which is not anonymous and could hinder the rate-of-return.) In addition, Dr. Newsome assesses how well each chair met the previous year's work plan and studies the upcoming year's plan with the chair. Consistent bad evaluation of a chair triggers a process that includes rehabilitation and a chance for improvement.
4. Chair recruitment
   Dr. Newsome related that at any one time there are generally three vacant chair positions in the SOM. The average tenure of a chair at the SOM is approximately 8 years. Dr. Newsome stated stronger chairs tend to leave on their timetables, weak chairs when they can't take it anymore. Ann addressed the process of chair recruitment to fill vacant positions. Ann works closely with the whole recruitment effort to insure it complies with federal, state, and university rules and regulations. The basic process is: 1) when a chair leaves a chair recruitment committee is established. The recruitment committee always includes women and, if possible, minorities. The department faculty votes on one third of the committee members who come from within the department itself. 2). Members begin to look at applicant packages. The committee cannot meet as a whole until thirty days after the last advertisement for the position is published or posted. Ann observed it is difficult to get enough women and minorities to even apply for SOM chair positions.
   Dr. Newsome ended the discussion with the committee by stating he wanted the Dean's Office to be a partner with COSOWAM in the recruitment of women and minorities and keeping salary equity ssues in focus.
4. The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 PM. Reminder: The next meeting is June 19, 2002 in Sanger Hall 1-038 at 4:00 PM. COSOWAM will not meet over the summer but will meet on September 18, 2002 in Sanger Hall 1-038 at 4:00 PM.

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