What's been done and what needs to be done

MUSC's Board of Trustees approved the first institution-wide University Strategic Plan last October, just one year after the University Planning Committee began its deliberations.

The plan seeks more interdisciplinary programs and central coordination of activities for the university to respond effectively to changes in education, research, and clinical service. It emphasizes the interdependence of these three mission areas and the need to develop and maintain better relationships with the community, locally and throughout the state and nation.

Since approval of the plan, which directs the university's progress for the next five years, MUSC faculty, administrators and employees have been working to meet its education, research, and clinical service objectives. One of the first steps in implementing the plan was communicating it to its constituents.

Last summer, The Catalyst published drafts of the strategies for comment by faculty, students, and staff. A draft was shared with the Visiting Committee, and the members of that committee recommended adding the fourth section on implementation. Board approval was announced in The Catalyst, along with the plan's Internet address. Thomas Higerd, Ph.D., chair of the University Planning Committee, presented the plan at faculty meetings for the colleges of Dental Medicine, Health Professions, Nursing, and Pharmacy. The plan itself can be found on the MUSC Homepage at <http://www.musc.edu/plan/index.html> or a paper copy may be ordered by calling 792-1646.

Priorities President's

Council was responsible for setting priorities among the strategies delineated in the plan. In March, the council decided to make the strategies with 1998 target dates top priority for this year. The University Planning Committee had identified target dates for most of the objectives and strategies in the plan. Most of the activities targeted for the first half of 1998 have been completed.

Education responsibilities include students, professionals, public

The University Strategic Plan lists three major groups to whom MUSC is responsible in its teaching activities:

• students in degree-granting programs;
• practicing health care professionals and biomedical scientists in lifelong learning programs;
• general public with access to health education and information resources.

Six of the seven education objectives have strategies with 1998 target dates. The other objective defines 13 core competencies expected of all MUSC graduates, and its target dates are all July 1, 1999.

A "university-wide systems review" is under way to assess the adequacy of the central leadership and resources available in support of the education mission of the university. Chris Fredericks, Ph.D., chairs the group performing this review. For purposes of this assessment, the education mission is conceptualized as being comprised of three basic elements:

• degree-granting programs and medical residencies;
• continuing education; public education.

The group is studying the various university activities comprising each of these areas and will report its findings and make recommendations to MUSC provost Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., by the end of the summer.

The University Planning Committee believed that coordination of all community-based and service-learning opportunities was needed. The committee also believed that all clinical sites should provide educational and research opportunities. The flexibility of the plan has been exercised by charging one committee with all these responsibilities. Members represent all six colleges and the education, research, and clinical service missions. Jan Bellack, Ph.D., associate provost for education, chairs the Clinical Sites Coordinating Committee. A database of all academic-community partnerships and activities is in development by the committee, and the clinical sites information will be incorporated therein.

Bellack also chairs the new Educational Infrastructure Committee. This committee will implement a mechanism for regular assessment, maintenance, upgrade, and capital improvement of the entire educational infrastructure. A number of old committees have been superseded by this group, thus improving the efficiency of the committee structure. Frank Starmer, Ph.D., associate provost for information technology, and Rosalie Crouch, Ph.D., associate provost for research, are key members of this committee.

A specific portion of the education section of the plan is devoted to reaffirming the university's commitment to diversity in its workforce, students, pedagogy and curricula. The dean of each college and the deans of the general faculty and the Office of Student Support Services are developing goals and action plans to increase diversity in their programs. This effort takes the plan's strategies an extra step beyond the "written policies" and produces mechanisms to accomplish the desired increase in diversity.

Just as the University Planning Committee expressed strong support for diversity, it also identified a need to support faculty development activities in education, research, and clinical services. For this year, the plan focuses on new faculty orientation by colleges and the university. A small group is developing a university orientation for new faculty and suggesting topics that would be better suited to college or department orientation programs. Selected faculty who have been at MUSC for fewer than two years participated in a focus group discussion to identify topics. The first university-wide new faculty orientation session will be held in August.

The final part of the education section charges the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment with developing and implementing a comprehensive plan this year to assess and measure the effectiveness of the university's degree-granting, non-degree granting, and public education programs, as well as developing and implementing a standardized process for evaluating teaching-learning effectiveness. John Cormier, Ph.D., associate provost for institutional assessment, and the Committee on Institutional Assessment decided early in its deliberations that it would concentrate on specific assessments for degree-granting programs and teaching-learning effectiveness for the July 1 deadline. The plan will extend to non-degree granting programs in 1998-99 and to public education programs in 1999-2000.