MEMBERS ABSENT: Drs. William Brody, Diane Griffin, Robert Lawrence, Alfred Sommer and Barry Zirkin.

GUESTS: Drs. Benjamin Caballero, Sharon Krag, Noel Rose and Jonathan Weiner; Ms Diane Glover; Messrs. Herbert Hansen, Ross McKenzie and Michael Taylor.

Dean Ellen MacKenzie convened the meeting at 3:00 p.m.

Approval of the Minutes: Minutes of the 796th meeting on December 17, 1996 were approved.

Remarks by the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs: Dr. MacKenzie announced that President Brody, Provost Knapp, Dean Sommer and the other deans are at a retreat called by the President. She noted that the planning committee for the School's own retreat on April 4-6 has met and will make assignments in preparation. She requested that those attending the retreat return the requested information to the Dean's office.

Dr. MacKenzie announced that Dr. John Breitner will become chair of the Department of Mental Hygiene by July 1, 1997. Dr. Breitner, now at Duke University, is a psychiatrist working in the area of Alzheimer's disease research. Dr. MacKenzie thanked Dr. Zeger for chairing the search committee and Dr. Griffin for serving on the search committee.

Mr. Hansen then reported that in the process of reviewing general funds allocations projected for 97-98, an over-allocation to the departments was detected. It is likely to affect the departments proportionate to their size. A number of options for resolving the over-allocation are being discussed with the Dean and the Committee on Finance, and Mr. Hansen plans to propose solutions over the next few weeks. He will meet with each department chair to discuss the impact on the departments. Additional checks and balances will be imposed to prevent similar occurrences in the future.

Report of the Faculty Senate: Dr. Scocca reported that the Faculty Senate discussed student academic ethics at its most recent meeting and that the faculty will continue to educate itself about this issue.

Other items
Next steps in SHPH Information Systems plan Dr. Caballero and Messrs. McKenzie and Taylor joined the group. Dr. Caballero reviewed the plans to improve the School's Information Systems, noting that changes planned over the previous eighteen months have been accomplished. Many sources of frustration with the Information Systems have been dealt with, and it now has the capacity to handle increased usage. The Committee on Information Technology would now like to set up procedures to enable students and faculty to communicate for course information and instruction. One method is to provide students with access to Information Systems via upgrading the student computer laboratories. This can be accomplished for a small number of computers relative to the number of students. In addition, students will be expected to have their own computers, with access to the School's Information System provided by the School, including ports, dial-in access, and access to printers at identified locations within the School. Standard computer and software packages have already been made available for students to purchase.

A number of department chairs indicated interest in seeing whether departmental student spaces can be upgraded similar to upgrades in the more common areas. Mr. McKenzie will let the department chairs know of the plans for improving Information Systems access, and the time frame for doing so. Security, word processing and a number of related issues were addressed, after which the Advisory Board congratulated the Committee on Information Technology and Office of Information Systems on their successful efforts to improve the School's computing environment.

Pew "Managed Care and Public Health" grant
Dr. Weiner joined the meeting. He remarked that the School received a modest grant from the Pew Foundation to respond the changing dynamics of the health care system and bridge gaps between schools of public health and managed care organizations (MCOs). The grant provides a mechanism at the School to coordinate activities and interactions across many interested departments with MCOs and to develop strategies to evaluate them. In the future, it is anticipated that funding will be received to work with the Maryland Health Department and local health officers to rethink their roles now that Medicare and Medicaid patients are being placed into managed care plans.

Dr. Weiner requested that faculty from diverse disciplines and departments with an interest in this area should contact him. There will be opportunities for collaboration with the MCOs in a very applied fashion and interests of the MCOs will dictate to a large extent the expertise of the collaborating faculty. It is anticipated that the School will have a number of opportunities to demonstrate the value and cost-effectiveness of prevention strategies within MCOs.

Dr. Steinwachs noted that the Department of Health Policy and Management deliberately moved to seek such opportunities as a result of a departmental retreat two years ago. After further discussion, the Advisory Board thanked Dr. Weiner for bringing this interesting opportunity to their attention.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m.

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