Representation at the Meeting:
 

Anesthesiology	Jim Daniel
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology	Bob Stellwagen, Zoltan Tokes
Cardiothoracic Surgery
Cell and Neurobiology	Shao-Yao Ying
Children's Hospital	Paul Pattengale
Emergency Medicine	Mike Orlinsky
Family Medicine
Medicine	Om Sharma
Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Neurological Surgery
Neurology	Steve Stohlman
Norris Medical Library	Candice Benjes
Obstetrics and Gynecology	David Miller
Ophthalmology	Ron Green
Orthopedics	Thomas Hedman
Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery	Daniel Kempler
Pathology	Florence Hoffman
Pediatrics
Physiology and Biophysics	Herb Meiselman
Preventive Medicine	Dan Stram
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences	Tom Hicklin
Radiation Oncology
Radiology
Rancho Los Amigos Hospital
Surgery	Jeff Peters
Urology

Also attending: Elaine Kaptein, Austin Mircheff, Henry Slucki, Bruce Gross, Richard Lubman, C Jacob, Zea Barsky

1.  Call to Order and Approval of Minutes:

The President Loren Laine, called the meeting to order at 12:08 PM.  The minutes of  March 7, 2000 meeting were approved without opposition.

The Secretary, Peter Heseltine, opened the nominations for the constituencies electing representatives for 2000 - 2002  Representatives were urged to seek qualified faculty to represent their departments. The nominations will close at the next meeting, which is also a Faculty-at-Large meeting on May 9, 2000. Written nominations were received from Medicine: Frank Quismorio (tenured), Ahmet Baydur (non-tenured), Shelly Lu (tenured), Richard Lubman (tenured). The Chairman of the nominations committee Harvey Kaslow announced the candidates for executive offices: President-elect Gary Lerner, President-elect Julie Nyquist, Secretary Dan Stram, Treasurer Jeff Peters, Member at Large of the Executive Board Richard Lamb. Discussion was then held as to how to encourage additional faculty members to run for office and a general call was made.

Lengthy discussion was made of the Senate Taskforce Report & Recommendations on Contracts & Tenure at the SOM. Concerns were raised that the inclusion of language specifying nine months and not twelve months were not appropriate to the SOM. It was argued that this provision was in conflict with previous letters distributed by the Dean of the SOM. Concern that the financial impact of such a policy would have a chilling effect on hiring new faculty was considered. The fact that the Senate Constitution states that non-tenured faculty may not make decisions about tenured faculty was raised as it was understood that all Senators (tenured and non-tenured) had participated in formulating the proposed policy. Further, it was pointed out that the policy brief was to deal with new tenured faculty, but made recommendations concerning non-tenured faculty.

A motion to reject the Taskforce's Report and Recommendations was proposed by Herb Meiselman and seconded by Om Sharma. The motion was carried without opposition by a vote of 16 to 0, with one abstention.  The MFA/SOM Academic Senators were then instructed by the Representatives to express the stated concerns about this policy to the next Senate Meeting, where the issue is to be discussed.

Letter from President Laine to Academic Senate President Tierney on MFA Recommendation 1999-00-004

The Secretary, Peter Heseltine introduced the above motion concerning a request to the Dean for release of information that would have a bearing on contracts currently being issued or not yet issued to Faculty. It was seconded by Herb Meiselman. After discussion, the resolution was unanimously approved by the Representatives by a vote of 15 to 0, with one abstention.

In the interest of time and in the absence of new information, this item was tabled by the President Loren Laine

Joseph Van der Meulen, Vice President for Health Affairs being unable to attend due to an urgent meeting, Peter Heseltine and Kathryn Challoner reported that an agreement in principle had been reached between USC and the County of Los Angeles concerning a new CPSA. Because of a letter from Mark Finucane, Director LA Department of Health Services, President Sample had agreed to defer sending letters to the Faculty warning of possible lay-offs in July, should no CPSA contract have been signed. Full details of the proposed CPSA are not available, but it is believed to contain provisions for a rolling five-year contract. The County would have rights to determine what services it needs from year to year. Some Faculty are presently paid directly by the County. If they leave, the County will determine how there salary "items" will be replaced. This will be done in consultation with USC, but the salary will not automatically revert to the CPSA. Finally, the County has requested schedules of physician services and on-call schedules.

The Academic Senate has requested the MFA select a person to participate in a Senate working group considering IP policy.  The MFAEB selected Dr. Kaslow, and Loren Laine informed the Senate of that choice. Dr. Kaslow had a cordial discussion with Cornelius Sullivan, Vice Provost, Research regarding the proposed policy, but has received no word regarding the Senate working group. Dr. Kaslow had no new documents to distribute, and informed the MFA that when new documents became available they would be posted on-line, and the representatives would be informed of the posting.

Documents relating to Intellectual Property Issues

The meeting was adjourned at 1:18pm