Bloomberg School of Public Health
Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
Thursday, May 16, 2002 | 3 p.m. | 860th Meeting

Members Absent Drs. William Brody, Steven Knapp, William Eaton, Martha Hill, Robert Lawrence, Jonathan Links, Roger McMacken, and Edward Miller.

Guests Dr. Sharon Krag; and Mss Sylvia Eggleston Wehr and Diane Glover.

Meeting Convened Dean Sommer convened the meeting at 3:00 p.m.

Approval of the Minutes Minutes of the 859th meeting on April 25, 2002 were approved.

Remarks by the Dean

Dr. Sommer reminded the Advisory Board that Convocation is Wednesday afternoon, May 22, and Commencement is Thursday morning, May 23. He announced that Drs. Scott Zeger, Harout Armenian, and Homay Farzadegan will be awarded Golden Apples for contributions to teaching at Convocation. The Advisory Board congratulated Dr. Zeger on this honor, his second Golden Apple.

Remarks by the Faculty Senate

Dr. Rose reported that the Senate met a week ago and is now considering a report prepared by a faculty subcommittee headed by Dr. Jonathan Weiner on the balance between research and education at the School and individual faculty levels. The report will be considered at the joint Faculty Senate/Committee of the Whole meeting on June 20.

Update on School Case Statement and Branding Project

Dr. Sommer asked Ms Eggleston Wehr to provide an update on the Case Statement development and School branding project as the new campaign begins. Ms Eggleston Wehr commented that the University-wide campaign is based on the slogan "Knowledge for the World," and has a $2 billion goal. The School goal is an ambitious $500 million, which is a substantial increase over the goals of any previous campaign.

The focus of the School campaign will be support for students, and support for faculty activities which focus on innovation and translation. The School's new logo and "tag line" were unveiled and were positively received by the Advisory Board. The logo and brand will be launched in early Fall 2002, and other changes reflecting the brand will be phased in over the subsequent months. Dr. Sommer acknowledged the continuing efforts of Mss Eggleston Wehr and Glidden in this important activity.

Other items

Revisions of Faculty PPM #1 on Appointments, Promotions and Professional Activities of the Faculty -- for vote

Dean Sommer reviewed the rationale for and history of the development of the non-tenure professorial track. He noted that changes proposed in the PPM for research and public health professors include: that scholarly independence be a criteria for appointment/promotion; they are "neither expected nor encouraged to develop independently-funded programs"; clarification that their activities are to be linked to the programs of tenure-track faculty; and the size of the non-tenure professorial track is limited to a fixed proportion of the tenure-track/tenured faculty.

The Advisory Board reviewed the proposed modifications of the non-tenure professorial track, and made a few minor wording changes. They then discussed at length the principle of limiting the number of non-tenure track professorial faculty. Dr. Steinwachs commented that adopting this principle will force the work of every non-tenure track faculty member to be linked to the work of a tenure-track faculty member, and that this raises the need for careful management of faculty within the departments. Dr. Sommer noted the hidden consequences of allowing the size of the non-tenure-track faculty to increase.

Several chairs commented that the titles of research associate and senior research associate are not as desirable by junior faculty as the scientist title. They then determined that because of the lack of independence of research associates and scientists, they will not be allowed to act as Principle Investigators on RO-1 and other sponsored applications, although certain exceptions may be made for the situation where funds are awarded contingent on moving to another institution. The Office of Research Administration will be informed of this change.

Dr. Sommer indicated that the revised PPM does not change the basic principles and criteria for faculty appointment and promotion, and reflects the Faculty Senate's proposal that created the non-tenure professorial track. The revisions merely bring the various changes over the past 8 years into alignment with their original premise. Therefore, he did not feel that the proposed changes required additional discussion in venues other than the Advisory Board.

The Committee on Appointments and Promotions has been confused by different interpretations of the present criteria for the different tracks and has requested that clearer direction be provided. The proposed changes will clarify the criteria for and expected responsibilities of the different tracks. Dr. Sommer noted that the Committee on Appointments and Promotions will be asked to review the faculty in light of the clarified criteria, and that he will review the new PPM with the Committee on Appointments and Promotions.

After further discussion, the Advisory Board voted to approve the proposed changes to Faculty PPM #1 on Appointments, Promotions and Professional Activities of the Faculty, with minor wording changes. The PPM will be forwarded to the Committee on Appointment and Promotions, where Dean Sommer will review it in depth, and to the Faculty Senate, and others.

Revision of Academic Programs PPM #6 on Continuing Education Courses -- for vote

Ms Fox briefly reviewed the revisions of the PPM on Continuing Education courses, which was then approved by a vote of the Advisory Board. The accompanying modifications of Conflict of Interest form which faculty completed annually will be shared with the Office of Research Administration. Faculty will be asked to provide their CV concurrently with the Conflict of Interest form on an annual basis.

Proposed Academic Programs PPM on Certificate Programs -- for vote

Ms Fox reviewed the new proposed Academic Programs PPM on Certificate Programs, along with the list of existing certificate programs. Dr. Yager noted that some of the information on the School web site about certificate programs is inadequate and poorly organized. He is working with the Admissions Office to rectify this, and commented that certificate programs which cannot provide an appropriate level of information will not appear on the web. Several certificate programs do not appear to be well-subscribed over an extended period, and the Advisory Board discussed developing criteria for terminating such programs.

Dr. Lawrence commented that the original CDC-funded "Graduate Certificate Program in Public Health" is being revised in light of new potential target audiences, and that any revisions will be undertaken in close collaboration with the departments.

The Advisory Board voted to approve the new Academic Programs PPM on Certificate Programs.

Other items

Dr. Sommer reported that the important issue of faculty diversity was discussed recently by the deans and Provost and remains a high priority for the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Sommer noted that tenure-track/tenured professorial faculty salaries in the School remain at approximately the median of other schools of public health, however the cost of living in the Baltimore area is less than in several other major cities with private schools of public health.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Robin Fox

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Last updated 09Jul02 by dgips@jhu.edu