Chronology of USC School of Medicine Governance Documents

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The Keck School of Medicine Governance Document
1980-1998 2005 2011 2015-19

GOVERNANCE DOCUMENTS AND THE USC SCHOOL OF MEDICINE:
CHRONOLOGY TO 1998

1. In the late 1980s, during the Deanship of Robert Tranquada, the Faculty and Administration worked together to develop a Governance Document and an Academic Personnel Policy Document for the School of Medicine.

2. Both documents were eventually approved within the School by the Faculty Executive Council (FEC), the Medical Faculty Assembly (MFA), and by a vote of the faculty at an open meeting.

3. In 1988 the Governance Document was submitted to Provost Pings of the central administration of the University for approval. Dr. Tranquada subsequently indicated to the Faculty of the School of Medicine that the Governance Document was acceptable to the central University administration, and Dr. Tranquada implemented the document.

4. The Academic Personnel Policy Document was submitted to Provost Ping's in about 1990 but was not approved. Nevertheless, at least some parts of this Academic Personnel Policy Document were thereafter used as a guide by some administrators, staff, and faculty of the School of Medicine.

5. In 1991 the School of Medicine provided the 1988 Governance Document to the site visitors from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) of the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Council on Medical Education of the American Medical Association as part of the process to reaccredit the School. Earlier accreditation reports from the LCME had indicated that the School needed a set of written bylaws such as this Governance Document.

6. In June 1996 the MFA obtained copies of the 1988 Governance Document (PDF) and the 1990 Academic Personnel Policy Document (PDF) from Interim Dean Van Der Meulen.

7. During the summer of 1996 the MFA explicitly followed some of the provisions of the 1988 Governance Document and submitted formal Recommendations to the FEC and the Dean and called for a special meeting of the FEC which was held on August 21. (See minutes of the August 1996 and September 1996 MFA meetings.)

8. At the October 23, 1996 meeting of the FEC, Interim Dean Van Der Meulen stated that in his view the 1988 Governance Document was not valid because "it was never approved for implementation by the appropriate senior officers" of the University. He moved that the document "is not valid" and that it "be reconsidered." The FEC voted in favor of this motion with only the MFA representative to the FEC voting no. A second motion from Dr. Van Der Meulen was passed, also with the MFA representative voting no, stating that a working subcommittee of the FEC be formed to "1. review the existing governance document; and 2. prepare a position paper for the FEC on how the issue of a governance document should be resolved." Dr. Van Der Meulen asked Dr. Larry Kedes to chair the subcommittee.

9. At its meeting on November 12, 1996 the MFA passed Recommendation 1996-97-004 stating that: "The MFA strongly recommends to the FEC and to the Dean of the School of Medicine that any changes in the 1988 Governance Document be made in accordance with the specified procedures in the document and that the existing document be kept in force until such changes have been approved by all parties involved."

10. In response to an email letter from the MFA dated November 15, 1996 Vice-Provost Barbara Solomon indicated that the Provost's Office has no formal procedure for reviewing and approving governance documents, and has no record of actions taken by that office regarding the 1988 Governance Document of the School of Medicine.

11. At the February 19, 1997 meeting of the Academic Senate, Provost Armstrong was asked about the status of the 1988 Governance Document. He responded that he was looking into it and should have an answer in a couple of weeks.

12. Dr. Van Der Meulen discussed his views on the 1988 Governance Document at the March 4, 1997 meeting of the MFA. He indicated that he never considered the document to be valid when he became the Interim Dean. He stated that the Provost would be willing to work with the faculty to revise the document if the faculty accepted the position that the document was not in effect during the revision process. The MFA did not agree to this condition and reasserted the position stated in its Recommendation 1996-97-004. (See the minutes of the March 1997 MFA meeting.)

13. The MFA wrote to Provost Armstrong on March 13, 1997 and again on May 27, 1997 asking for information regarding the status of the 1988 Governance Document. These letters pointed out the need to clarify the issue so that documents could be prepared for the self-study for the upcoming LCME accreditation site visit.

14. On June 13, 1997 Provost Armstrong wrote to MFA President Stellwagen and to Interim Dean Van Der Meulen to say that the Board of Trustees had reviewed and "minimally" revised the 1988 Governance Document in order "to bring it into agreement with the by-laws of the University." He provided a copy of the revised document (1997 Governance Document) and indicated that the School could submit amendments if desired. This action of the Provost was reported in the HSC Weekly on June 20, 1997.

15. The MFA formed a Task Force to be chaired by Harvey Kaslow, MFA President-elect, to consider revision of the 1997 Governance Document. (See minutes of the August 1997 MFA meeting.)

16. In December 1997 Dean Stephen Ryan appointed a Task Force on School of Medicine Governance to be chaired by Senior Associate Dean Leslie Bernstein.

17. A Draft Governance Document was developed by the Task Force and circulated for debate in March 1998. Further revisions were made and a second draft was circulated on April 2, 1998.

18. Extensive discussion of the April 2, 1998 draft document took place at the April 14, 1998 General Faculty Meeting sponsored by the MFA. A number of criticisms were rasied, including ones on behalf of the MFA Executive Board presented by Austin Mircheff.

19. A third revised draft of the Governance Document was circulated to the faculty onApril 22, 1998 along with a letter from Dr. Bernstein..

20. The April 22, 1998 version was voted on and passed by the FEC on April 29, 1998 and by the MFA on May 5, 1998(see minutes of the May 5, 1998 MFA meeting). Additional suggestions for improving the document were made at the May 5, 1998 MFA meeting.

21. Leslie Bernstein continued to work with various faculty members and administrators to improve the document. An amended version was posted on June 18, 1998, with an accompanying letter from Dr. Bernstein.

22. The June 18, 1998 version of the Governance Document was approved by the FEC on June 17, 1998 and by the MFA on July 7, 1998 (minutes of July 7, 1998 meeting). The final version was also submitted to a vote of the full-time faculty of the School of Medicine and was approved by a margin of 165 to 10 on Sept. 9, 1998. (Text of approved Governance Document.)

The above summary was prepared by Robert H. Stellwagen and posted on August 20, 1997.
It was amended on several later dates, most recently on Sept. 25, 1998 to include recent events.
On June 8, 2011, Harvey Kaslow added links to PDF copies of the 1988 Governance Document and 1990 Academic Personnel Policy.