posted Feb. 26, 1997
MEDICAL FACULTY ASSEMBLY
MINUTES FOR THE MEETING OF JANUARY 7, 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Attendance by
Officers and Members of the Executive Committee
Representation at the Meeting
Approval of Minutes
Report on Responses of Administration
to MFA Recommendations
Distribution of Information
from the Task Force on the Future of the Health Sciences
Election of MFA Representative
to Proposed CPSA Committee
Report on Staffing Problems Regarding
Year I Medical Teaching
Discussion of
Restructuring Proposals
New Business and Adjournment
Attachment: Letter from Dr. Schechter
Attachment: Letter from Dr. Warren
ATTENDANCE BY OFFICERS AND MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:
President Robert Stellwagen present President-Elect Kathryn Challoner present Secretary Harvey Kaslow present Treasurer Wendy Mack present Past President Donna Shoupe present Member-at-Large Silvia Formenti Member-at-Large Loren Laine present Member-at-Large Laura Wachsman present
REPRESENTATION AT THE MEETING:
Anesthesiology Jim Daniel Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Robert Stellwagen Cell and Neurobiology Children's Hospital Emergency Medicine Kathryn Challoner Family Medicine Jerry Gates Medicine Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Axel Schönthal Neurological Surgery Neurology Cheryl Waters Norris Medical Library Alice Kawakami Obstetrics and Gynecology Donna Shoupe Ophthalmology Ronald Green Orthopedics Tom Hedman Otolaryngology Dennis O'Leary Pathology Arnis Richters Pediatrics Laura Wachsman Physiology and Biophysics Preventive Medicine Wendy Mack Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Henry Slucki Radiation Oncology Radiology Michael Terk Rancho Los Amigos Hospital Surgery Jeffrey Peters Urology
The meeting was called to order at approximately noon by President Robert Stellwagen.
The minutes of the previous meeting were approved with corrections to spelling of names.
2. REPORT ON RESPONSE OF ADMINISTRATION TO MFA RECOMMENDATIONS.
Kathryn Challoner and Robert Stellwagen reported the FEC had not voted on MFA Recommendations 1996-97-002, -003, 004, and 005.
Recommendations -002 and -003 recommended that representatives from MFA and APLACH serve on a committee to establish guidelines for expenditure of CPSA funds, and that these representatives serve as voting members of the University's negotiating team. There did not seem to be opposition at the level of the FEC or the Dean to these Recommendations. However, Dr. Van Der Meulen stated that votes are not usually used to determine the position taken by such committees.
Recommendation -004 recommended that the FEC and the Dean honor the Governance Document recognized as legitimate by the MFA be left in force and not be changed except by the process described in the Document. Dr. Van Der Meulen stated to the FEC that the Provost was reviewing the issue.
Recommendation -005 recommended that the documents regarding restructuring the School of Medicine shared with the FEC also be shared at the same time with the MFA. The Administration indicated it will try to comply with this request.
3. DISTRIBUTION OF INFORMATION FROM THE TASK FORCE ON THE FUTURE OF THE HEALTH SCIENCES.
The minutes of the first meeting of the TFFHS held December 6, 1996, were distributed.
4. ELECTION OF MFA REPRESENTATIVE TO THE PROPOSED CPSA COMMITTEE.
Five faculty have been nominated to serve as the representative. It was moved, seconded, and passed by voice vote without dissent that ballots would be distributed to MFA representatives and would be collected at the next meeting of the MFA. At that meeting, the vote will be tallied. If no candidate receives a majority vote, then a run-off will be immediately held between the two candidates receiving the most votes. Once a candidate has received a majority of the votes cast, that candidate will become the representative. The second-place candidate will become the alternate representative.
The candidates were invited to submit statements for distribution prior to balloting.
5. REPORT ON STAFFING PROBLEMS REGARDING YEAR 1 MEDICAL TEACHING.
At the Faculty Meeting of December 3, 1996, after the presentation by Dean Ryan regarding restructuring of the School, a first year medical student addressed the Dean and suggested that the School was not providing adequate faculty support for the instruction of first year medical students in the areas of anatomy, microanatomy, and nutrition. He further suggested that the state of the School had not been accurately portrayed to him at the time of his application to the School. As a result of this event, the Executive Board of the MFA solicited statements regarding this statement from Dr. Dwight Warren, Associate Dean for Curriculum, and Curriculum Coordinator for Pharmacology and Nutrition, and Dr. Joel Schechter, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Educational Coordinator for the Department of Cell and Neurobiology. The letters were received and distributed, and the text of these letters are attached to these minutes. After reviewing the letters, it was moved, seconded, and approved by voice vote with no dissent that the Executive Committee of the MFA would further investigate the situation The focus of the investigation would be to determine if all rules and procedures of the School and University had been followed. If the MFA were to determine that all rules and procedures had been followed, then the MFA might then consider developing new rules and procedures that would prevent the further deterioration of the teaching effort. In that case, the MFA could formally propose the new rules and procedures to the Administration using the Recommendation process as described in the Governance Document.
6. DISCUSSION OF RESTRUCTURING PROPOSALS.
A discussion began regarding the restructuring proposal of the Dean. Most representatives had little enthusiasm for discussing the proposal at the time.
7. NEW BUSINESS AND ADJOURNMENT.
There was no new business, and the meeting was adjourned.
8. ATTACHMENT: TEXT OF LETTER FROM DR. SCHECHTER DATED DECEMBER 11, 1996.
December 11, 1996.
Dr. Robert Stellwagen
President, Medical Faculty Assembly
USC School of Medicine
Dear Dr. Stellwagen:
As per the request of the MFA made to me on 12/10/96, I am enclosing some comments to address the issues addressed at the MFA meeting, which were in turn precipitated by comments made by Anthony Mascola, Med I, at the open MFA meeting on 12/3/96.
As I recall, Mr. Mascola commented on problems faced by him and his classmates with respect to staffing shortages in Gross Anatomy and Microanatomy, i.e., he felt at times he "was teaching himself," and additional problems relating to instruction in Nutrition. He also stated that he felt the ability of the school to educate him had been misrepresented at the time he applied for admission. As you requested, I am relaying these comments to you because of my role as Course Director of Microanatomy, Educational Coordinator of CNB, and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, and because I believe many students may share Mr. Mascola's feelings.
I cannot comment upon Mr. Mascola's statement regarding misrepresentation, and will leave it to Dr. Warren to comment on Nutrition. However, there is no doubt that our ability to staff our Gross and Microanatomy courses has been significantly and negatively impacted for the past year or so, coincident with the departures of six experienced, tenured faculty. At the outset of the year we (CNB) attempted to do the very best we could to achieve adequate staffing, at least based on numbers of people available to teach. Nonetheless, this required the use of graduate student TAs and other part time hires. Although this had also been done in the past, the situation was greatly exacerbated by the loss of key experienced faculty from these courses. Especially noteworthy were losses of Drs. Snow, Cullen and Johnson, although other experienced faculty also have left in the last two years, and two more (Drs. Haun and Wood) will be retiring by next year. To date, we have not been able to replace these faculty with equivalently capable and experienced faculty. It is important to note that during this time, I and others in the Department of CNB, have been consistent in informing the administration of our concerns that our ability to maintain the educational mission of the program within our course disciplines (Gross, Microanatomy and Neuroanatomy) has been severely compromised. Those of us who remain have done their best, albeit with diminishing resources. If you would like, I can document the instances in which members of CNB have (and continue) notified the administration regarding these important issues.
It is also possible that some of the stress expressed by Mr. Mascola in Gross Anatomy may have resulted from the absence of one of our remaining experienced anatomists, Dr. Gene Albrecht, who did have a death in the family and was therefore not available for approximately one week.
I assure you that those of us who remain in CNB are attempting to "hold the fort." However, in my personal judgment, loss of experienced faculty who were well oriented to our courses and also oriented to team teaching in a unified manner, is the major factor underlying our current dilemma. It is these people who are simply not being replaced, in spite of our persistent warnings to the administration. Therefore, although I was chagrined by Mr. Mascola's comments, I can not say that I was surprised.
Please, know that the Department of CNB appreciates the concern of the MFA in these matters that affect the entire medical school. We welcome your support and any suggestions.
Sincerely
(signed)
Joel Schechter, Ph.D.
Professor, Cell and Neurobiology
Educational Coordinator CNB
Assistant Dean of Student Affairs
9. ATTACHMENT: TEXT OF LETTER FROM DR. WARREN DATED DECEMBER 16, 1996.
December 16, 1996
MFA Executive Committee
This letter is in response to your request that I provide information with regard to the events that led up to a change in the teaching of Nutrition to the Year I medical students and prompted statements of concern from members of the Year I class.
I believe that the students were somewhat justified in their complaints about Nutrition education. At one time, there was a Department of Pharmacology and Nutrition and there were several faculty capable of providing nutrition education to medical students. With the decline and eventual merger of that department, we were left with only one individual to teach nutrition, Mark Meskin. As acting chair of that former department, I was not able to hire anyone in the vacated slots since those slots were being saved for a new chairperson to fill. After merger of the departments of Anatomy and Cell Biology and Pharmacology and Nutrition, the goal of the Department of Cell and Neurobiology was to build the area of neurobiology research. Thus, no new individuals were hired that had nutrition expertise.
In August of this year, we were left in a very difficult position in that Mark Meskin gave us only two weeks notice before the beginning of the semester that he was leaving. It was Mark's initial intention to try and teach this year for the Year I students. Once he received his teaching assignment from Cal Poly, he realized that it would not be possible to teach the med students. Thus, we were put at an extreme time disadvantage with regard to teaching Nutrition.
Dr. Bob Stellwagen suggested I contact Dr. Marcel Nimni who is in the Department of Surgery at Children's Hospital. He also has a joint appointment in Biochemistry. Dr. Nimni has a sincere interest in teaching nutrition and belongs to a national nutrition organization. He is a very nice, well intentioned person. However, his lectures were much more biochemical in nature than the previous years lectures. Since the students get the PDE notes, they were able to compare the content of Mark Meskin's lectures with Marcel Nimni's. They were disappointed that there wasn't as much emphasis on clinical nutrition.
The last three lectures of the year, we had a graduate student from Preventive Medicine teach who was a registered dietician (RD). I attended the first of those lectures, as I did with Dr. Nimni. These last three were right on target and appreciated, I believe, by the students. I did query some of the students to see how they liked the lectures. We will have more information when I get the student feedback report. As to the future, we will be trying to recruit more RDs to teach or work with Preventive Medicine to get one full-time faculty that will teach in this area, possibly under the direction of Preventive Medicine (yet to be determined).
I do not believe however, that the students education in nutrition has been compromised to any great degree. In any medical school there is a normal flow of retiring and new faculty. As new faculty come in, they learn to teach. Rarely, is someone able to start his/her teaching career and teach with excellence. For most, it is a learned skill. Mark Meskin only became popular in the last year of his teaching here. He had to learn his skills as a teacher. I believe it is the duty of experienced faculty to help the new teachers (regardless of their chronological age). Thus, I will continue to sit in and observe the new teachers in both pharmacology and nutrition.
Sincerely yours,
(signed)
Dwight W. Warren, Ph.D.
Curriculum Coordinator for Pharmacology and Nutrition
Associate Dean for Curriculum
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End of minutes MFA 970107