Bloomberg School of Public Health
Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
Thursday, November 29, 2007 | 3 p.m. | 925th Meeting

Members Absent: Drs. William Brody, Robert Black, Laura Caulfield, John Groopman Martha Hill, and Edward Miller.

Guests: Drs. Janet DiPietro and Daniel Webster; Mss. Diane Glover and Margi Joshi; and Messrs. Herbert Hansen and Michael Ward.

Meeting convened: Provost Kristina Johnson convened the meeting at 3 p.m.

Approval of the Minutes: Minutes of the 924th Advisory Board meeting of October 25, 2007 were approved as submitted.

Remarks by the Provost

Provost Johnson thanked the Faculty Senate leadership for providing information about faculty concerns about HopkinsOne and SAP, particularly in accurately tracking research expenditures. New HopkinsOne leadership has been appointed who are making this issue a high priority.

The Krieger School of Arts and Sciences is exploring an opportunity to offer a master's degree in biotechnology in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It would be a combination of on-line and in-class instruction. Dr. Johnson is interested in developing a pricing strategy for all of Johns Hopkins as several divisions of the University are negotiating with groups in the UAE to offer specialized academic and research programs.

Dr. Johnson reported on several interdivisional strategic initiatives of the University. A high performance computing initiative is being developed and should include a representative from the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Telepresence technology is also being explored to facilitate long distance education. The University is considering forming a partnership with the Alfred Mann Foundation for technology transfer of biomedical technologies. Dr. Johnson also reported that she will be restructuring the office of the Provost over the next several months.

Remarks by the Dean

Dean Klag reported on two searches for department chairs in the School. The three finalists for the chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology are visiting again in the next few weeks; advertisements for the chair of the Department of Biostatistics have been placed while the Review Committee completes its report. Dr. Klag would like to fill both positions by July 1, 2008.

Dr. Klag reported that the School's United Way goal is not close to being met. While some have mixed feelings about United Way, Dr. Klag noted that the University has negotiated a lower than usual administrative fee to support the local United Way. He asked that we stress the importance of this source of funding as many local small NGOs rely on contributions from the United Way to be sustained.

A recent meeting among community leaders and the three East Baltimore deans, Dr. Peterson, and Dr. Blum of the Urban Health Institute focused on the increasing impact of local youth violence. The School has a number of initiatives to prevent youth violence. While concern had been expressed by community members over the closing of a free clinic operated by Hopkins, Dr. Klag reported that a number of sources of free primary care exist in East Baltimore. The Urban Health Institute and the Hopkins Health System will work together to reduce the barriers to seeking primary care from these existing sources, and improve community members' abilities to access subspecialty care.

Dr. Klag noted that Dr. Morlock is visiting the UAE for final negotiations of the MPH/DrPH program proposed for Abu Dhabi. The Abu Dhabi proposal on Environmental Health will be reviewed in January 2008.

Dr. Klag briefly mentioned the 2008 call for applications for the Pfizer Scholars Grants in Public Health that are open to new assistant professors. Chairs were asked to coordinate their applications through Deans Yager or Fox.

Report of the Faculty Senate

Dr. Gange reported that the most recent Faculty Senate meeting was held jointly with the Committee of the Whole. At the meeting, there were several short updates including continuing changes in the IRB and the revised PPM on ownership of educational materials. Another topic was the health assessment on the Web requested by the Benefits Office in order to obtain an additional $100 in benefit dollars. The consensus at the School was that the roll-out of this initiative was poorly handled and appeared to be coercive, particularly to the least paid staff; the specific assessment tool was felt to be inaccurate and poorly designed. There is considerable expertise in the School in communications and survey design and content; hopefully in the future others in the University will consider taking advantage of this expertise.

Other Business

Revisions of Policy and Procedure Memorandum Faculty #7 Fraud in Research

Ms. Joshi joined the Advisory Board. Dr. DiPietro briefly reviewed the changes to the PPM in Fraud in Research, now called Scientific Misconduct in the PPM. All previous suggestions have been included in the revised versions. Dr. DiPietro noted that the School has had two formal allegations of Scientific Misconduct in the past dozen years. Such allegations can be brought against and by faculty, staff, and students. Dr. Johnson asked about providing support and counseling for someone who is cleared of scientific misconduct charges.

Dr. DiPietro mentioned that she and Ms. Joshi recently participated in the "Boot Camp" sponsored by the HHS Office of Research Integrity. The proposed Research Misconduct policy revisions are highly consistent with ORI guidelines. Interestingly, Dr. DiPietro noted that the ORI does not consider cases of plagiarism among collaborators and that the School's policy on "Unsatisfactory Performance and Unacceptable Behavior" would cover allegations of this type against faculty.

After further discussion, PPM Faculty #7 Scientific Misconduct was approved with one minor change. The Advisory Board thanked Ms. Joshi and Dr. DiPietro for proposing the revised policy.

Revisions of Policy and Procedure Memorandum Faculty #1, section on Faculty Family Leave Policy

Dr. Webster joined the Advisory Board. He indicated the Committee on Affirmative Action's interest in de-stigmatizing the request for tenure-track faculty to stop the tenure clock for childbirth and adoption. The Committee proposed changing the procedure under such circumstances from requesting to stop the clock to notifying the chair and dean that the clock should be stopped. Thus far, few faculty have taken advantage of stopping the clock. The proposed procedure is likely to enhance the perception that the School is family-friendly and potentially increase our ability to compete for excellent young faculty.

The Advisory Board voted to approve the revised PPM with one change. The Advisory Board agreed that this policy needs to be communicated to faculty, however it must also be clarified that stopping the clock does not mean that affected faculty cannot be considered for promotion prior to the expiration of their term.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Robin Fox

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Last updated 01Jul08 by dgips@jhu.edu