AHC FCC

January 19, 2005

Minutes of the Meeting

These minutes reflect discussion and debate at a meeting of a committee of the University of Minnesota Senate or Twin Cities Campus Assembly; none of the comments, conclusions, or actions reported in these minutes represents the views of, nor are they binding on, the Senate or Assembly, the Administration, or the Board of Regents.

PRESENT: Kathie Krichbaum (chair), Lois Heller (via ITV), Ed Combe, Brian Isetts, Michael Georgieff, John Hines, Marc Jenkins, and Peter Davies

ABSENT: None

In these minutes: [Discussion: to formalize the nomination to fill the position on the AHC F&P sub-committee; Task Force members for Teaching Portfolio project; and AHC Strategic Plan items to discuss with SVP Cerra at the January 26^th meeting.]

Professor Krichbaum called the meeting to order and asked members to formalize the nomination to fill a position on the AHC F&P subcommittee. Motion was made and the nomination was approved unanimously. Professor Krichbaum said she would contact the nominee on behalf of the committee.

Professor Krichbaum asked members to think about colleagues who might be interested in serving on a task force for a new plan proposed by Dr. Barbara Brandt to implement a teaching portfolio program. The Teaching Portfolio could fit with another project under Dr. Brandt’s study with possible funding coming from the Institute of Post-secondary Education and the Kellogg Foundation, who are looking at community partnerships and the scholarship of teaching within the community. If funding were granted, this would result in another Task Force being developed that would move in the direction of documenting the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Professor Krichbaum met with Linda Perkowski, Associate Dean of Educational and Curriculum Development in the Department of Medicine Education, who is also working with Dr. Brandt on the Teaching Portfolio. Professor Krichbaum and Dean Perkowski agreed if a Teaching Portfolio becomes a requirement by all the AHC Schools/Colleges, then the task force should be comprised of representatives from each school/college. They discussed inviting colleagues from the School of Veterinary Medicine, who already have a teaching portfolio in place, to help work on this project. The charge to the task force would be to create a standard format to document teaching effectiveness.

The following points were raised as to the creation and the contents of a teaching portfolio:

• What type(s) of documentation are required for a teaching portfolio?
• E.g., possibly documentation that can be included in dossier for promotion, tenure and post-tenure use.
• What kinds of standards and guidelines need to be set and what are the essential elements and levels of teaching credentials that will need to be met?
• How should the documentation(s) be formatted—who will create standardization for said documentation(s)?

Committee members requested that Dr. Brandt’s office provide them in writing, the charge of the task force, the name of the task force, guidelines on soliciting nominations, and the chain of command for the task force. Professor Krichbaum said she would follow-up with Dr. Brandt.

Vickie Courtney, University Senate, announced she has received two nominations for the Academy for Excellence in Health Research award. The deadline for submitting nominations for the Academy for Excellence in Health Research award was January 14^th.

Committee members went on to discuss issues concerning the low number of nominations submitted:

• How to increase the visibility of the award and the need to increase publicity of the award.
• How to get the Department Heads involved and working with faculty within their units to generate nominations.
• To further consider whether past nominations would or should be re-considered for nomination at all; if so, how many years past?
• Review the timelines with respect to announcements and deadline for submitting nominations.

The committee expressed interest in discussing these issues with Dr. Mark Paller, Assistant Vice President for Research. Professor Krichbaum will contact Dr. Paller to invite him to an upcoming meeting to discuss the Academy for Excellence in Health Research award process.

Due to numerous conflicts in schedules, members canceled the February 9^th meeting. In lieu of that meeting, members will be sent the award nomination packets and will complete and submit their evaluation of the nominees by February 9^th. The meeting with SVP Cerra would be held on February 16^th, as scheduled.

Next, committee members engaged in discussion around Governor Pawlenty’s State of the State address that included a proposal for a 4-year university at Rochester and the effect it would have on the AHC Schools/Colleges. The committee decided that they should position themselves on this issue as much as possible and then discuss it with SVP Cerra.

The last agenda item was the review of the updated Strategic Plan. The discussion revolved around determining how the updated Plan differs from the previous document, what seems to be the direction of change, and determining the way in which the Strategic Plan is moving toward faculty means. A major concern/question that evolved from this discussion was, “What should the faculties of the AHC schools/colleges be promoting to the Legislature regarding the work of the faculty at the University of Minnesota?” The committee will discuss this and other philosophical perspectives with SVP Cerra and also raise the question of how the committee can better communicate to their own constituencies on what the AHC Strategic Plan is all about.

Professor Lois Heller asked, pertaining to their review of the Strategic Plan, if anyone else on the committee was having trouble understanding the wording of some of the objectives and the placement of some of the initiatives coinciding with those objectives. The committee agreed that the wording of some of the objectives seemed confusing and had questions about some initiatives being placed with/under the right objective. Professor Krichbaum said they should not get too caught up in the “form” of the Strategic Plan but to concentrate on the substance. She suggested identifying one or two objectives for the committee to put their collective energy toward, as to try and define and meet all the objectives would be too huge and over-arching.

The Committee noticed some changes that are reinforced throughout the new Strategic Plan document. Some of those changes are:

• A definite trend to move from bench research to clinical research. There is recognition in the Medical School that pure clinical research needs to be strengthened. What implications will this have for faculty? And, does this indicate that the AHC is turning away from basic research or is it expanding toward clinical research?

• The move from campus into the community and building community partnerships to deliver educational enterprise. How will this move affect the AHC’s educational programs?
• The promotion of the clinical corridor. How is that going to affect the research enterprise? Will people be employed there? Are there going to be models for people to have joint/interdisciplinary practices?

Additional questions around specific Goals, Objectives and Initiatives are as follows:

• Goal 2: “Sustain the vitality and excellence of Minnesota’s health research.”
• Initiative 2.2.1 and 2.2.2 were redlined and removed, commented Professor Heller. She would like to keep them in the current Plan with added attention to “strengthen incentives and rewards on our campus.”
• Goal 2: “Sustain the vitality and excellence of Minnesota’s health research.”
• Objective 3.0 “Promote the Success of the Mayo-University Partnership in Genomics and Biomedical Sciences.” Professor Heller feels this is “too specific” and that the Initiatives supplied under this Objective seem to be more general than just applying to the Mayo/University partnership. As example, the development and submission of NIH grants should be for everyone and not just for the Mayo/University/genomics partnership, she said. Professor Heller indicated that the way it is written here is confusing and needs clarification. Goal 2, Objective 2, “Promote the performance of research” was determined by committee as a more general area, and perhaps better placement, for Initiative 3.0 “Support the development and submission of NIH grants” and Initiative 3.1, “Promote the development of intellectual property.”
• Goal 1: “Create and Prepare the New Health Professionals for Minnesota”
• Objective 6. “Promoting excellence in education.” Professor Krichbaum asked the committee if they thought the Academy for Excellence would fit better under this Goal and Objective. Professor Krichbaum also questioned if evaluating teaching performance and creating a Teaching Portfolio could be a point of development and be included as part of Objective 6, Initiative 6.1, “Develop an incentive and reward program that values education and rewards excellence”.

The Committee then discussed what happens when new partnerships are formed, taking advantage of research monies coming from commercial endeavors and how, in the long term, this will shape the research agenda. It will have a tremendous implication for the science and research endeavors for AHC schools/colleges, one member commented. Members also discussed the change in education and how it is offered in an age of information paradigm where information is available from many sources, regardless of who is presenting it. What are the implications of these changes and is the Strategic Plan moving faculty in a direction of a different role for the future of AHC schools/colleges, it was asked. The question, promoting the University to the Legislature, was raised of what should they be “advocating” to the Legislature to promote faculty needs at the University of Minnesota. The Committee needs to determine how, and by whom, the decisions are made in determining what is the next “best” thing to go forward on to attract funding from the Legislature. Professor Krichbaum suggested the committee take these philosophical perspectives forward to the next meeting with SVP Cerra and ask him what is the basic underlying assumption, outlined in the Strategic Plan, as to the direction of the AHC. All agree that it is the committee’s responsibility to raise these kinds of questions so the committee can better communicate to their own constituencies.

Professor Krichbaum thanked committee members for the good discussion. She indicated that she would talk with Dr. Barbara Brandt to get the information about the charge to the task force on Teaching Portfolios and will contact Dr. Paller, making him aware of the nominations and that the name will be forwarded to him after February 9^th.

Hearing no further business, Professor Krichbaum adjourned the meeting at 11:30 a.m.

Judy Wirebaugh

University Senate Office