Bloomberg School of Public Health
Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
Thursday, October 31, 2002 | 3:00 p.m. | 865th Meeting

Members Absent: Drs. William Brody, Martha Hill, and Edward Miller.

Guests: Dr. Ellen MacKenzie: Mr. Herbert Hansen; and Ms Diane Glover.

Meeting Convened: Provost Knapp convened the meeting at 3:00 p.m.

Approval of the Minutes: Minutes of the 864th meeting on September 19, 2002 were approved.

Remarks by the Provost

Provost Knapp and the members of the Advisory Board congratulated Dr. Black on his election to the Institute of Medicine, and Dr. Lawrence on being awarded the 2002 Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism.

Dr. Knapp commented on a number of new facilities at Hopkins, including at 1717 Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, DC, and on the Homewood and East Baltimore campuses. A search committee for the dean of the Whiting School of Engineering has been formed. A separate external group will conduct a review of the School of Engineering, and a task force has been created to assess the interactions between the Applied Physics Laboratory and the Whiting School of Engineering.

Remarks by the Dean

Dean Sommer commented that the upcoming year will be a busy one from the academic perspective, with positive changes in the MPH program, and a number of reports and reviews of departments and programs now in progress. He noted that all space in the Wolfe Street additions now under construction (TR5 and TR6) has been allocated. He remarked on an article in the Blue Sheet about the importance of collaborations among biological, medical, behavioral and other investigators for successful approaches to "big science."

Remarks by the Faculty Senate

Dr. Links remarked that the Faculty Senate met on October 10 to review the most recent changes proposed to Faculty PPM #1. Suggestions were forwarded to Dean Sommer in preparation for the Advisory Board meeting. Dr. Weiner expressed the Senate's appreciation of an extra month to consider the proposed changes.

Dr. Links commented that the Senate may wish to re-examine faculty titles more broadly independent of the changes now under discussion. At the Faculty General Assembly meeting on November 7, the main topic will be the proposed PPM on ownership of educational materials. The next goal of the Senate is to condense the 4 white papers arising from the Strategic Plan into a single document with succinct recommendations.

Other items

Additional Revisions of Faculty PPM #1

Dean Sommer remarked that he asked Dr. Steinwachs to head a small committee that included Drs. Links, Weiner and Zeger, to suggest revisions to the PPM. The present PPM includes the recommendations of the committee, which place the locus of control and responsibility for resource allocation with the department chairs, and makes clear that resources are reserved principally for the tenure-track faculty. Procedures to assure appropriate resource allocation and management will also be put in place in the Office of Research Administration for sponsored applications. Dr. Steinwachs noted that one section of the PPM has been devoted to a description of the faculty search process and is referred to throughout the document. The PPM also re- introduces the title of associate scientist.

A motion was then introduced to approve the PPM. The comments provided by Dr. Links and the Faculty Senate were reviewed individually. Dr. Brookmeyer clarified that it would be up to the department chairs to determine who can advise masters students, while only professorial faculty can advise doctoral students. Dr. Rose noted that there is not an explicit statement in the PPM requiring tenure-track professorial faculty to have independent funding, which makes the statement in the new PPM regarding evaluation of non-tenure-track professorial faculty sound inconsistent.

Dr. Steinwachs reviewed the rationale for removing Table 1 from the PPM. The table included expectations for each track in scholarship, teaching, advising, School service and other dimensions of faculty activity. His committee felt the table was no longer useful as a formal guide to faculty activities, although it might be an informal summary for administrative purposes.

After further discussion, the Advisory Board voted to approve the PPM with minor modifications suggested by the Faculty Senate. The PPM will be posted on the School web site.

Successful "Big Science"

Dr. Sommer remarked that the School has not been very proactive in promoting big science across departments and disciplines. A case study provided by a junior faculty member was referred to, and several aspects of that situation were reviewed; a salient feature was an inability to identify a senior faculty member to take on a leadership role. Drs. Krag and Yager are heading up a working group to better facilitate mounting big science initiatives at all levels of faculty involvement, and plan to develop an infrastructure to identify, prioritize and support such activities. Dr. Steinwachs commented on the slow decision- making process and the need to involve experienced faculty who commonly are already over committed to other activities. Dr. Lawrence noted that the professional practice area would benefit from such an infrastructure as well.

The Advisory Board then briefly discussed the Report and recommendations of the Committee on Behavioral and Social Sciences, which will be presented and discussed at the November 21, 2002 Advisory Board meeting.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Robin Fox

© 2003 The Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore, Maryland. All rights reserved.
Last updated 07Jan03 by dgips@jhu.edu