Meeting Minutes 

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ABSENT: Angel, Areen, Breall, Doug Brown, Byrne, Cuddington, Curran, Dover, Gallucci, Gerli, Glavin, Haft, Harter, Kromer, Lepgold, McAuliffe, McCabe, Nelson, Oakley, Pfeiffer, Picken, Puto, Rothstein, Spiegel, Weidenbruch, Whittington.

GUESTS: G. Massaro, J. Rauschecker, C. Robinowitz, N. Scribanu, J. Verbalis, D. White.
 

The meeting was called to order at 4:20 p.m. by Prof. Bates.

There will be in information session on the Ex Corde Ecclesiea document soon; an announcement will be forthcoming.

Minutes of the September 1, 1999 meeting were approved.

An appointment to the University Rank and Tenure Committee was considered, to replace Tom Beauchamp who is on sabbatical.  Prof. Gomez-Lobo was nominated on behalf of the Main Campus Caucus by Wayne Davis.  The Senate approved his appointment by unanimous consent.

A replacement is needed for the Library Faculty Advisory Committee.  Father John Witek was nominated and appointed by unanimous consent.  While there was some concern that Father Witek is on sabbatical until January, the Senate chose to appoint him now.

The Athletic Dept. will undergo review for the NCAA and for the Main Campus.  It is not clear whether two separate committees will be formed. Provost Dorothy Brown has been asked to clarify.

A committee is being formed to work on the Mission Statement for the University. The Senate appointed Father Walsh and Sister Taylor by unanimous consent, upon the recommendation of the Steering Committee.

The draft recommendations and report of the Ad Hoc Faculty Senate Committee on Tenure Issues in the Medical Center were distributed. Prof. Moran Cruz described the process by which the report was generated.  The committee has been meeting regularly since June, and the draft presented is the most recent of many.  The committee consulted with other medical centers and Bob Jones of the American Association of Medical Colleges.  The Senate voted to receive the report for discussion.  Prof. Moran Cruz pointed out that the recommendations are principles agreed on by the committee.  During the discussion, several questions dealt with distinctions between basic scientists and clinicians, and various other faculty groups in clinical departments.  Other discussion centered on whether clinical tenured faculty would voluntarily move to MedStar or not, and what the implications would be.  Some Senators asked what liability the University would have for clinical portions of salaries of tenured faculty.  Prof. Davis stated that the Steering Committee had eliminated implications that this might happen.  Prof. Moran ended by stating that the assumption of the ad hoc committee was that Georgetown's intention, and MedStar's intention, was to have an excellent School of Medicine.

Prof. Bates led the Senate through consideration of the individual recommendations.  Recommendation 1 was moved and seconded.  After some discussion, the recommendation was modified to read "Tenure is and should remain a principle central to the academic mission of this University, including the basic science and clinical faculty in the Medical School."  It passed 35-0, with 4 abstentions.

Recommendation 2 was moved, seconded and discussed.  It was approved, as presented, 36-0-3.

Recommendation 3 was moved and seconded.  Prof. Bates pointed out that this is part of AAUP policy.  It was approved by unanimous consent.

Recommendation 4 was moved and seconded.  The phrase "Tenured and tenure-track" was added to the beginning of the sentence as part of the motion.  The comma was also deleted. It now reads "Tenured and tenure-track faculty of clinical departments who are not practicing clinicians and function in a manner similar to basic scientist should be subject to the same compensation  structure as basic scientists."  It passed by unanimous consent.

Recommendation 5 was moved and seconded.  Prof. Bates strongly recommended to the administration that in addition to defining base salaries, contracts should be used.

The phrase "at Georgetown University" was inserted after "campuses."  Some discussion involved whether the recommendation should include all Medical Center tenured faculty.  The sense of the discussion was that the principle applies to all tenured faculty, but in this case, the point of the recommendation is to define conditions for tenured clinicians.  The implications of recommending that salaries "be subject to yearly increases" was debated.  The item was passed 30-2, to read "The tenured FPG faculty must receive a base salary that is defined and, similar to salaries on other campuses at Georgetown University, is subject to yearly increases based on merit reviews that consider teaching, research, and service."

Prof. Moran Cruz presented recommendations 6 through 14.  She particularly urged adoption of #12.  The latest FPG contract suggests that faculty can be terminated for causes other than specified by the Faculty Handbook, for example.

Prof. Murphy moved adoption of recommendations 6-14.  Recommendation 10 was changed to read "Clinician" instead of "Clinical."  It now reads "Clinician-Educators who have contracts must have their contracts honored, but that may be by MedStar."

After brief discussion of some of these items, a vote was taken.  The motion passed, 29-2, with one abstention.

Prof. Bates encouraged Senators to forward to him additional areas for the ad hoc committee to consider.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:10 p.m.

AKM/jhg

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