Attendance by Officers and Members of the Executive Board:
 

President	Loren Laine
President Elect	Harvey Kaslow	present
Secretary	Peter Heseltine
Treasurer	Jerry Gates	present
Past President	Harvey Kaslow	present
Member-at-Large	Kathryn Challoner	present
Member-at-Large	Dennis O'Leary	present
Member-at-Large	Rebecca Sokol	present

Representation at the Meeting:
 

Anesthesiology	Jim Daniel
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology	Bob Stellwagen
Cardiothoracic Surgery
Cell and Neurobiology	Elyse Schauwecker
Children's Hospital	Gary Lerner
Emergency Medicine	Kathryn Challoner
Family Medicine
Medicine
Molecular Microbiology and Immunology	Joe Landolph
Neurological Surgery
Neurology
Norris Medical Library	Candice Benjes
Obstetrics and Gynecology	David Miller
Ophthalmology	Ron Green
Orthopedics	Thomas Hedman
Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery
Pathology
Pediatrics
Physiology and Biophysics	Herb Meiselman
Preventive Medicine	Dan Stram
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences	Richard Lamb
Radiation Oncology
Radiology	Michael Turk
Rancho Los Amigos Hospital
Surgery	Jeff Peters
Urology

Also attending: Elaine Kaptein, Austin Mircheff

1.  Call to Order and Approval of Minutes:

In the absence of President Loren Laine, the meeting was called to order at 12:10 PM by President-elect Harvey Kaslow.  The minutes of the February 1, 2000 meeting were approved without opposition when a quorum was present .

Dr. Kaslow asked the MFA to move this item from fifth place to second in the agenda due to obligations of faculty interested in the issue who might have to leave.  With no objection, the item was then considered.  Dr. Kaslow reported that just prior to the meeting, he had received a phone call from Dr. Laine, who was in Hawaii attending a meeting also attended by Dr. Van Der Meulen, Dr. Heseltine and Mr. Fermin Vigil, Vice President, Comptroller.  Dr. Laine informed Dr. Kaslow that, according to Dr. Van Der Meulen, there was, or soon would be, a letter-of-agreement regarding the contract and, thus USC considered it not necessary to send letters this year to faculty stating that there might be cuts in salaries or positions. Because the contract requires approval by the County Board of Supervisors, it will be some time before the final contract is signed.

Dr. Challoner then related her understanding of several events and issues regarding the contract.  She stated that APLACH had sent a letter to Dr. Van Der Meulen expressing concern about the lack of faculty involvement in the contract negotiation process and asking that the MFA faculty advisory committee, which had not met in some time, be convened.  Dr. Van Der Meulen subsequently met with the faculty committee on Feb. 29 and reported that there was increasing pressure from various sources for the contract to be signed soon, even though there were still unresolved issues.  At this meeting the faculty conveyed several concerns to Dr. Van Der Meulen.  These concerns included:

• The need for strong language in the contract regarding ancillary support, such as adequate nursing staff and ICU beds. There is also a need for more operating rooms.
• The need for strong language in support of the residency programs so that they are able to retain their accreditations.
• The need for a suitable infrastructure for reporting workunits.
• The need for provisions in the contract to allow the county doctors to advance in rank since positions have been frozen for some time.
• Physicians need to have more say in clinical decision making.
• The issue of COLAS needs clarification.

Dr. Challoner also reported that at the meeting on Feb. 29, Dr. Heseltine had asked Dr. Van Der Meulen to provide to the faculty those parts of the contract on which agreement had been reached, and Dr. Van Der Meulen had agreed.  Dr. Challoner stated that on March 2 rumors began to circulate that the contract had been signed, although subsequent information was that merely an agreement to sign had been reached.  She stated that faculty were eager to meet with Dr. Van Der Meulen upon his return to Los Angeles to clarify the situation.

Discussion continued with several representatives expressing concerns about the process that there had been inadequate involvement of faculty during the negotiation of the contract, and that faculty remained inadequately informed regarding the contents of the contract.

Dr. Peters, representative from the Department of Surgery, stated that there have been frequent meetings of department chairs with Dr. Van Der Meulen regarding the status of the contract negotiations.  He also stated that his department had obtained some details about the contract by contacting the University Counsel.  This information included the duration, the dollar amount, the fact that there would be COLAs and procedures for replacement of faculty who might retire.  Dr. Challoner pointed out that this information did not address many of the issues that the faculty committee had raised with Dr. Van Der Meulen on Feb. 29.

After additional discussion, it was moved and seconded that the MFA Executive Board write letters to appropriate persons to attempt to obtain information about the contract and to express concerns about the process and the lack of faculty involvement. This motion was passed with 14 representatives voting in favor and 1 voting against.

Dr. Kaslow announced that Dr. Laine had informed him that after discussions with the Dean, it had been determined that the Dean could attend the spring meeting of the Faculty-at-Large if it were held on Tuesday, May 9.  Dr. Laine had recommended that the meeting begin at 4:30 PM.   Dr. Kaslow asked if the MFA found that date and time were agreeable, and after hearing no objection stated that the meeting would be scheduled for that date and time.

President-elect Kaslow distributed information on the proposed new policy on intellectual property that has been put forth by the administration of the University.  The distributed materials and additional information have been posted on the web by both the MFA and the Academic Senate.  The policy pertains not only to research discoveries and patents, but to written materials including those used to teach students.  Thus, if adopted, the proposed policy would impact virtually all faculty members in the University.  The policy proposed by the Administration was presented at a special meeting of the Academic Senate, and a number of concerns were expressed.  At a subsequent meeting of the Senate, objections were again raised, and little unqualified support was evident.  The School of Engineering was particularly vocal in its objections to the proposal.  President-elect Kaslow urged representatives to become familiar with the issues, discuss them with their departments, and express their opinions.  Additional discussion took place with several representatives expressing their concerns.  Dr. Kaslow stated that it was his understanding that the Senate planned to convene an ad hoc committee to consider the issue, and that Dr. Laine had recommended to the Senate that Dr. Kaslow be part of the committee.

Dr. Kaslow stated that departments scheduled to elect representatives this spring are listed at the MFA web site.  In the phone call, President Laine informed Dr. Kaslow that at the request of the Dean, President Laine and Senior Associate Dean Bernstein would meet and determine what support for MFA elections and other activities might come from the Office of Faculty Affairs.

After discussion, the following MFA representatives were selected to serve on the nominating committee for next year's MFA officers:

Herb Meiselman, Jerry Gates, Rebecca Sokol, and Dan Stram.

MFA Treasurer Jerry Gates said he had no information to present at this meeting.  A consolidated budget document has been received by the Budget Committee, but its release has not been authorized.  Treasurer Gates stated he would invite Mr.Fermin Vigil, Vice President, Comptroller to the next MFA meeting to present the budget document.

Dr. Kaslow indicated that he had spent little time on this issue due to the urgency of dealing with the proposed policy regarding intellectual policy.  After some discussion, Dr. Mircheff urged that the item be placed early on the agenda of the next meeting of the MFA, that sufficient time be devoted at that meeting to discuss the report, and that the MFA should consider endorsing the report.

Full details of the policy can be found on the MFA website at http://www.usc.edu/schools/medicine/faculty/mfa/TaskForce_Final_Report1.html

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 1:30 PM