VCU School of Medicine Women in Medicine and Science

<< index < previous meeting | next meeting >

October 2005

Minutes of the Wednesday, October 19, 2005 Meeting of the School of Medicine Committee on the Status of Women and Minorities

Attending: Dr. Zakia Bell, Dr. Paulina Essah, Dr. Andrea Ferreira-Gonzalez, Dr. Shobha Ghosh, Ms. Carol Hampton, Dr. Wendy Klein (co-chair), Dr. Susan Kornstein, and Dr. Rita Shiang (co-chair); guests were Ms. Debbie Stewart, Mr. Jim Yucha, and Mr. Rob Downs

Dr. Wendy Klein, Co-chair, presiding:

Dr. Klein called the meeting to order at 4:05 PM.

Ms. Carol Hampton passed out written materials to members present.

It was discussed whether the meeting time was still convenient for committee members, and absent members were discussed. No conclusion was met.

Dr. Rita Shiang, Co-chair, then shared results from the COSOWAM planning meeting with Dean Jerry Strauss on October 14, 2005 to discuss the exit survey and issues arising from the survey (blue handout). Dr. Rita Shiang, Dr. Wendy Klein, Dr. Karen Cropsey and Ms. Carol Hampton attended the meeting with the Dean. Dr. Shiang discussed the items listed in the agenda:
1. SOM Faculty Exit Survey results, Dr. Karen Cropsey, PI
  1. Results from the study included that the majority of faculty who left did so for:
    1. professional advancement
    2. salary
    3. faculty development
    4. departmental leadership reasons
  2. Dean Strauss was supportive of study and
    1. ollection of data for 2004-2005, and
    2. will facilitate presentation of data to department chairs
2. Salary inequity between genders was also discussed and
  1. Dean Strauss is gathering salary data on scatter plots to decide whether this exists, and
  2. if so, will share information with departmental chairs
Dr. Klein suggested that the committee ask that departmental chairs be held accountable for salary inequity between genders. Ms. Hampton stated that Dean Strauss completed a similar study at University of Pennsylvania previously. Ms. Hampton also suggested that the January meeting be moved to the second Wednesday, January 11, 2006, 4 – 5 pm, so that Dean Strauss would be able to attend. Ms. Hampton stated that she would confirm this date with Dean Strauss, and recommended that questions for him be sent ahead before the meeting so that he can prepare answers. Dr. Shiang then continued with the report from the meeting with Dean Strauss.
1. Faculty dining room for communication improvement
  1. Described at last COSOWAM meeting (gold handout) during the
    1. meeting with Darrell Johnson, Vice President-- Clinical Enterprise, and
    2. volunteers were requested to serve on a committee (purple handout):
      1. Dr. Andrea Ferreira-Gonzalez
      2. Dr. Susan Lanni
      3. Dr. Arti Pandya
      4. Dr. Rita Shiang
  2. Dr. Klein stated that she would send the names above to Mr. Johnson, and
    1. described the plans for the dining room for
    2. members not present at the previous COSOWAM meeting
2. Electronic calendar (Communication issue)
  1. Dean Strauss was non-committal on this issue, and agreed that
  2. the existing VCU calendar should be utilized first.
3. SOM Mentoring system
4. Support Dean Strauss in his efforts
5. Benchmarking women and minority faculty
  1. COSOWAM will continue with our benchmarks but would try to work with the Dean’s office as he also wants to see the statistics of the benchmark
6. IRB Concern
  1. Inequity in remuneration for services in that
    1. physicians are paid for their time on IRB committees, and
    2. other faculty are not.
  2. A letter was written to Dean Dickie Newsome (blue handout), and
    1. in his reply Dean Newsome agreed that it was unfair, but
    2. was unable to do anything about it.
    3. The letters had also been forwarded to Sheldon Retchin
  3. It was discussed that physicians receive $10,000 per year (amount needs to be verified), but
    1. the money goes to the department,
    2. it is unknown if it is forwarded to the physician
    3. and this may vary by Department
  4. The Dean was unaware of the problem and agreed it was not equitable and
    1. would discuss this with Dr. Frank Macrina, Vice President for Research
    2. To be truly unbiased external IRBs may need to be considered.
VCU Office of Technology Services then gave a demonstration of the present electronic calendar system on the VCU website. Mr. Jim Yucha, Director of Web Services for VCU, and Mr. Rob Downs, IT Specialist in Web Services, showed an interactive demonstration using the library calendar as an example. It was explained that by the use of filters, the calendar could be personalized for SOM events only, although changes to the calendar menus would have to include new keywords to better represent the SOM, such as "WISDM", "Women's Health", and "Restricted to SOM only", etc. The VCU calendar can be found at www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/calendar/, or can be accessed from any page of the VCU website by selecting the "calendar" tab at the top of each page. Mr. Yucha explained that anyone with a VCU eID can enter information into the calendar for approval, which is implemented by Ms. Alice Mitchell; Ms. Mitchell, however, assumes that the room for the meeting has been reserved. Mr. Yucha further suggested that the SOM may designate a single email address to approve SOM meetings so that approval does not have to go through Ms. Mitchell.
It was discussed then how the committee could make current and new faculty aware of the calendar and encourage the departments to participate in reporting meetings and seminars on the calendar. It was suggested that the SOM put a link to the calendar on its website with filters to select for SOM events only; in addition, the link could be added to departmental pages as well, with filters as the department chooses. Additionally, it was suggested that new faculty could be informed during New Faculty Orientation, and a Faculty Development Training Workshop was proposed for current faculty.

It was then discussed how the event data would be entered. Dr. Klein stated that Dr. Sheldon Retchin implied that he would hire a person to enter calendar data if needed, and suggested that gathering data will be the challenge of this project. It was then suggested that departmental administrative assistants could be responsible for entering their department's specific event data; division heads would be able to report their events to the department assistant. Furthermore, it was stated that departmental chairs would want their events posted on the calendar, so that they would then be accountable.

It was suggested that a letter should be written to Dean Strauss to encourage department chairs to adopt this new project and take accountability for the posting of event data for their own department. Dr. Shobha Ghosh volunteered to write a draft of the letter to present to the COSOWAM committee. In addition, it was suggested that the committee write a letter to Dean Strauss asking to demonstrate the calendar system at the next department administrators meeting to gather their support for the project. It was decided that the best strategy for cooperation of departments with this project was to begin at the top with the Dean.

Ms. Hampton requested that a display screen be added to the Sanger Hall Lobby that shows only the calendar information pertinent to the MCV campus.

Ms. Hampton also requested that committee members try to add events in order to ascertain if category descriptions are adequate for SOM needs, to note categories that would be helpful if added, and to suggest items to be changed. Ms. Hampton asked to name a subcommittee to be in charge of the web calendar project. Mr. Downs asked that all requests be sent to him via email. Furthermore, Mr. Yucha stated that the website will be redesigned with a target date of January 16, 2006; any suggestions to improve the site can be sent to VCU Application Services of VCU Technology Services.
Ms. Hampton then stated that the VCU Health System offered to discuss their employment retention program to control attrition of physicians, nurses, and technicians, including benefits such as salary increases that adjust with the job market. It was suggested to ask Maria Curran and Kay Davis to attend the next COSOWAM meeting to share their experiences with the VCU Health System.

The meeting was adjourned by Dr. Klein at 5:32 PM.
khs/10/20/05

<< index < previous meeting | next meeting >