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December 2005

Minutes of the Wednesday, December 13, 2005 Meeting of the School of Medicine Committee on the Status of Women and Minorities

Attending: Dr. Karen Cropsey (past Co-chair)Dr. Paulina Essah,Dr. Wendy Klein (Co-chair), Dr. Susan Lanni,Dr. Janet Niemeier, Dr. Rita Shiang (Co-chair), Ms. Mireille Truong

Dr. Shiang called the meeting to order at 12:18 p.m.

Material from the previous meeting was available for members present.

1. Letter to the Dean and E-calendar

The letter to the Dean regarding the utilization of the e-calendar has already been sent 12/5/05. With the last exit survey, it was mentioned that there was not sufficient communication between departments. With the e-calendar, there are capabilities already in existence to address this concern. The IT department came to show committee members how to use it and how the e-calendar can be tailored to the needs of the School of Medicine. Other steps to take would be to make departments aware of the capabilities of the e-calendar and to ask IT to do a presentation to the departments. The departments can then give their input. It was discussed previously that there should be a designated person to coordinate these efforts in terms of keeping in touch with departments and ensuring that the information is up-to-date. Also, there would be one person per department to input the information. The e-calendar can help improve interdepartmental sharing of information, enhance faculty development and collaboration.

2. Agenda Discussion for the Jan 11th meeting with the Dean

Possible Questions/Issues to address:

1. Medical campus communication: This is regarding the letter about the e-calendar.
2. IRB: The committee expressed that they would seek the dean’s input on issues such as the process currently in place with regard to the compensation of the members on the board based upon faculty position. 
3. Mentoring program: It was discussed that in the past, mentoring programs have not succeeded despite the need to provide resources, guidance and assistance to new faculty. It was mentioned that there has been a New Faculty Orientation set in place which has served to address this issue. It was then noted that perhaps there was a lack of research mentoring infrastructure. For instance there is a lack of opportunity for junior investigators to get assistance with grants.
   
   The committee was informed that in the OB/GYN department, there is a small scale infrastructure that is in place and well founded. The dean has discussed this issue with this department.
   
   It was suggested that perhaps it may useful to have research mentors or a group/committee identified to help with grant/research questions. It was mentioned that most faculty members are overextended and therefore it may be necessary to utilize existing sponsored programs. It was also discussed that perhaps there is information on the research process the NIH website as well as through people from sponsored programs.
   
   In summary, the committee expressed the need to have some sort of facilitation mechanism to help faculty through the research grant process.
   • Currently, the division chief and department chair are responsible to evaluate new faculty mid-year on their progress.
   • Mrs. Carol Hampton can provide more assistance and information regarding this matter.
4. Salary Equity
5. Transparency issue: The committee expressed that there should be clarification of the selection process as there is a lack of transparency regarding certain positions. Additionally, it was mentioned that under the IRB issue, the committee would like to discuss how decisions are made and if there is a committee in place for the selection of any advancing faculty members.
6. Summary for Agenda for meeting with the Dean Jan 11th 2006
   • Communication
   • Transparency
     • IRB
     • Career advancement process
   • Salary Equity
   • Research Infrastructure
     • more grant writing and working the system tutorial
     • more invited NIH section chiefs and study section chairs for advisory visits
     • mechanism for grant review prior to submission and facilitating grant process
     • growing the pool of seed money

For the January 11th at 4pm the committee would like to request the dean’s conference room.

3. Update on exit survey

So far, there is a 32% response rate on the survey.  There was better response in 2004 and 2003.

Meeting adjourned at 1:05 p.m.

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