MEMBERS ABSENT: Drs. Haroutune Armenian, Robert Black, John Groopman, and Jonathan Samet.

GUESTS: Drs. Sharon Krag, Robert Lawrence and Noel Rose; Ms Diane Glover.

Provost Cooper convened the meeting at 3:00 p.m.

Approval of the Minutes: Minutes of the 782nd meeting on September 19, 1995 were approved.

Remarks by the Provost: Dr. Cooper reviewed recent campaign pledges and noted that more than half of the campaign goals have been realized in one year. He commented that the generous gift by Mr. Bloomberg is particularly appreciated across the entire University.

He remarked that the University as a whole is doing well fiscally. For the first time in several years, the academic divisions as a whole completed the 1994-95 fiscal year without having a deficit. He acknowledged the substantial role of the School of Public Health in these efforts.

New information technology activities are expanding across the University. While most efforts are now directed locally and within the divisions, the University as a whole plans to approach distance learning at a global dimension to enhance the University as an international entity. A new University-wide committee will make recommendations for distance learning activities.

Dr. Cooper reported that a new committee is being established to provide oversight and quality control of part-time educational programs across the University.

Remarks by the Dean: Dean Sommer remarked that members of the Advisory Board will be canvassed for dates for a retreat to be held early in 1996. He reported on a recent Institute of Medicine meeting he attended and reported that the announcement of the new Risk Sciences Institute in the School received an enthusiastic response. He noted that Drs. Armenian and Jakab had recently returned from Germany, where they had been invited to review the German academic and professional public health infrastructure. The School will propose a major training program to meet the evolving public health needs of a unified Germany. He mentioned several other international activities in which the School is engaged.

Other Issues: Strategies For Doctoral Student Recruitment The discussion opened with the circulation of background information on methods used by each department to recruit doctoral students, and then to retain accepted students, so that departments were able to share their most successful methods. While departments differ in their sources of students, the major stumbling block to the recruitment of the best students is the financial support needed for tuition and stipend. Data on the proportion of accepted students offered financial support who come to the School is known by individual departments. Dr. Sommer suggested the chairs consider whether an advertisement placed in the American Journal of Public Health on behalf of the School describing areas of study rather than individual departments, would benefit overall student recruitment. Other ideas included developing a generic publication about the School and Baltimore and conducting a more formal survey to identify the programs and schools to which the best accepted students are lost. Dr. Zeger suggested that, to the extent possible, only those doctoral students for whom the School can provide full tuition support and stipend should be accepted, although it was recognized this was an "ideal" and that different departments and disciplines operate on different models. Further market research directed toward identifying new target groups of students, including working professionals, was suggested. Tracking of doctoral students might include exit interviews and an assessment of the financial support (if any) they received.

The chairs acknowledged that more efforts are needed in the area of minority student recruitment. Dr. Zeger described the School's ongoing efforts to recruit minority students from historically black colleges and from among recent M.D.s and science professionals. It was suggested that some efforts be directed toward recruiting minority students from colleges and universities which have active minority recruitment programs.

Dr. Mosley raised the possibility of developing a one year public health sciences program targeted for pre-med undergraduates which will better prepare them for medical and health careers and introduce them to public health. Several permutations of this concept were suggested. Dr. Sommer proposed that a small committee investigate developing an academic program or short courses to attract young students into public health and the biologic sciences enroute to medical school. The Committee might well propose School-wide advertising and/or a School-wide core curriculum for such students.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:15 p.m.

© 1995 The Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore, Maryland. All rights reserved.
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