By Anne Enright Shepherd
November 9, 2001
Working together, School of Medicine faculty members and administrators have initiated several positive changes to further enhance the academic life of faculty. A report issued this week outlines the enhancements.
The report reflects recommendations that arose from discussions at a faculty retreat in February 2000 and the steps that have been taken as a result.
The retreat raised issues of promotion, annual evaluations and other topics affecting medical school faculty.
"To carry the process further, Dean (William A.) Peck created the Faculty Retreat Implementation Task Force," said Jeffrey E. Saffitz, M.D., Ph.D., task force chair and the Paul E. Lacy and Ellen Lacy Professor of Pathology and Immunology and professor of medicine. "In order to make some changes that would improve academic life for faculty, we were charged with turning the recommendations into specific proposals."
The report outlines the task force's accomplishments in four areas discussed by medical school faculty at the retreat.
First, annual evaluations of faculty performance will take place in each department for all faculty members. Although annual reviews of faculty members had been a policy since 1997, discussions at the retreat indicated that compliance was incomplete.
Now there is an established monitoring process that involves the associate dean for faculty affairs, the executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the medical school, the Academic Affairs Committee of the Executive Faculty and the Executive Committee of the Faculty Council (ECFC).
Second, the task force recommended that the promotions process for faculty should include senior faculty members on promotions committees rather than only department heads. As a result, when promotions committees are formed, they now include five department heads and two senior faculty members.
"That's the most tangible benefit that has come out of the retreat," said Linda Pike, Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, who organized the retreat. "By changing the process, the senior faculty understand how promotion works, they are more comfortable with the process and now are in a better position to mentor junior faculty."
Third, recognizing that medical school faculty pursue either investigational, clinical or research career tracks, changes to enhance the status of research-track faculty have been implemented.
Criteria for appointment and promotion of research-track faculty now are included in the medical school guidelines for full-time faculty appointments and promotions, and faculty members on the research track now have voting rights on the Medical School Faculty Council.
Fourth, the task force recommended that an endowment be established to support, enhance and enrich teaching activities at the medical school.
"Momentum that the retreat started is still going," said Gregory A. Storch, M.D., professor of pediatrics, medicine and molecular microbiology, who chairs the ECFC. "The challenge for the current ECFC is to maintain that momentum. We want to continue this process of examining the role of the faculty in medical school education."
All members of the medical school faculty will receive a copy of the report, which also is available on the Web at medicine.wustl.edu/~fcouncil/.
| Email Us! |
Washington People |
Sports | Calendar | More Campus News |
Campus Watch |
| Medical News |
Notables | Record Staff |
Front Page | WU Home Page |