Monday, February 14, 2000
ICC Auditorium
(corrected)
PRESENT: Andrews, Arend, Banchoff, Bates, D. Betz, Dorothy Brown, Douglas
Brown, Cole, Collea, Danielson, Davis, DeGioia, Diamond, Fasold, Fink,
Glazer, Goldfrank, Haramati, Hauser, Iglarsh, Kopac, McFadden, S.J., Morris,
J.Murphy, A.Myers, Noyes, O’Connor, O’Donnell, Pfeiffer, Puto, Regan, Rameh,
Sanz, Sitterson, Soudee, Spiegel, Temple, Tracy, Viksnins, T.Walsh, Witek,
S.J.
ABSENT: Angel, Breall, Byrne, Cohn, Cuddington, Curran, Dover, Ernst,
Evans, Gallucci, Gerli, Glavin, Haft, Harter, Kromer, Lauerman, Lepgold,
McAuliffe, McCabe, McGrail, MoranCruz, Mujal-Leon, Nelson, Oakley, Ronkainen,
Rothstein, Serene, Vroman, Weidenbruch, Whittington, Wiesel.
GUESTS: J. Donohue, S. Glickman, D. Porterfield, C.
Robinowitz, M. Pentecost, N. Scribanu, S. Subramanian, LeRoy
Walters, J. Wrathall.
The meeting was called to order at 4:25 p.m. by Prof. Bates. Minutes
of the Dec. 6th Faculty Senate meeting were approved.
Committee Appointments
Three appointments made by the Senate Steering Committee were confirmed
by voice vote. These were: Mark Danielson, Comm. on Patents, Licensing,
Copyrights & Technology Transfer; Scott Redford, Library Faculty
Advisory Comm.; Patricia O’Connor, University Community Service Steering
Comm.
Medical Center
Sr. VP Jack DeGioia reported on the work of the Academic Planning Committee
(APC) which is planning for the transition in the academic Medical Center
after the transaction between the University and MedStar Health.
There is an approximate $15 million gap in the academic enterprise, mainly
in research, which needs to be closed. The APC has found that the
fundamentals of the Medical Center will support a break-even operation
after adjustments are made. This will require additional research
activity and enhanced philanthropic activity, and will take five years
and require some recruiting of new faculty.
According to Dr. DeGioia, The Medical Center has several established
strengths, including the quality of the Medical School and the research
standing of the Medical Center. Three areas of research which are
strong are neuroscience, oncology and therapeutics. Hiring of new
junior faculty will result in financial gains after a substantial lag-time.
Overall, it might take 5 or 6 years for the Medical Center as a whole to
break even.
The NIH budget will be growing markedly in coming years, and Georgetown
will benefit. The Medical Center will also benefit from its location.
For the financial plan to succeed, new budgeting mechanisms will be
needed, research track faculty should be recruited, and accurate tracking
of research performance and space utilization will be needed, along with
several other changes.
Prof. Glazer mentioned the need for uniform compensation policies before
recruiting new faculty. Profs. David Goldfrank and Douglas Brown
questioned whether the scenario for financial recovery were realistic.
Dr. DeGioia encouraged skepticism, but called the plan conservative.
In FY2000, overhead is being reduced, but not all of it will be cut before
July, 2000. An $8 million academic and research operating loss in
the model will actually turn into larger real losses in FY2001 due to time
required for implementation.
Prof. Bates said that announcements regarding progress on the MedStar
Health transaction will be forthcoming after this week’s Board of Director’s
meeting.
Linkages Committee
Dr. LeRoy Walters presented on the activities of the Linkages Committee,
which is studying existing linkages between the Main Campus and Medical
Center, as well as opportunities for new linkages. Four existing
areas with potential are biotechnology, neuroscience, ethics and health
policy. The committee is still at the early stages of its work.
Medical Center Governance Committee
Prof. Tony Arend reported on the Medical Center Governance Committee
that he chairs, which was appointed by Father Leo O’Donovan. In its
draft report dated Feb. 14, 2000, some general principles of governance
are proposed, recommendations for changes in Faculty titles and status
are made, a proposal is put forth for a modified Executive Faculty and
new Faculty Council. The latter would provide for a stronger faculty
involvement in Medical Center governance; it would meet with the
University President and members of the Board. The Executive Faculty
will also have new mechanisms for faculty involvement.
The draft recommends that the Senate’s Medical Center Caucus continue
to function as it does presently, with some stipulations regarding inclusion
of clinicians employed by both Georgetown University and MedStar Health.
Also, some recommendations are made regarding Faculty participation
in recruiting, and Rank and Tenure issues. The chairperson of the
Medical Center Committee on Faculty should be a tenured University employee,
and no more than a quarter of the committee members should be non-tenure
track. Tenure should remain an essential academic right for Clinical
and Basic Science faculty, and new faculty should have defined economic
guarantees according to the report.
Finally, the draft report makes specific recommendations concerning
the Grievance process, the service of Medical Center faculty on University
committees, and the review of Medical Center governance two years after
the transaction.
Prof. Pentecost presented on the work of the committee on governance
of the Medical Center Executive Faculty, that was appointed by Dr.
Sam Wiesel and chaired by Prof. Pentecost. That group also made a
number of recommendations on governance after the MedStar Health transaction.
They differ in a few key respects from the recommendations of Prof. Arend’s
group. According to Prof. Pentecost’s committee, all Medical Center
faculty should retain eligibility to serve on (or be chairperson of) any
University committee dealing with issues of relevance to the Medical Center;
the chair of Committee on Faculty may be on any faculty track; and only
minor changes in the Executive Faculty should be made.
A question was raised about how clinical chairs will be hired in the
future, and the role of MedStar Health in that process according to the
Academic Affiliation Agreement.
Prof. Arend’s report will be discussed and acted upon at the next Senate
meeting.
Georgetown Unity Coalition Proposal
The last agenda item was an address by Steve Glickman (C-2002), president
of the Jewish Student Association and member of the new Georgetown Unity
Association. The latter, which is a new coalition formed from several
campus groups, has developed a proposal, in response to recent acts of
hate and intolerance on campus. The group wants to act pro-actively
to promote tolerance and diversity. The proposal makes a number of
suggestions on curriculum, security, communications, and other areas.
Faculty have a key role, and a number of improvements which faculty can
effect are suggested. Provost Dorothy Brown expressed administration
support and reiterated the need for faculty action in making improvements.
Dean Jim Donohue mentioned the remarkable response of the academic community
to the unfortunate incidents, and the new bonds which have been formed.
He assured the audience that a number of mechanisms have been put into
action which will result in concrete proposals. Prof. Pfeiffer mentioned
that the Student Affairs Committee will also be involved. The Senate
Steering Committee is discussing the problems as well.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 p.m.
AKM/jhg
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