Faculty meeting covers major issues, projectsIn an information update to the MUSC faculty June 3, President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., reviewed the university’s progress in the South Carolina Health Sciences Collaborative, reported on the institution’s financial health, and gave an overview of campus construction projects and their time lines.John Raymond, M.D., vice president and provost, presented information about faculty contracting, distance education, and the search for deans of the colleges of Dental Medicine and Pharmacy. Linking the state’s two largest biomedical research universities, MUSC and USC, with its two major hospital systems, Greenville Hospital System and Palmetto Health Alliance, the collaborative will develop biomedical research proposals involving MUSC, USC, and hospital scientists. Designated research leaders from the four institutions will form a Scientific Steering Committee to review proposals and make recommendations to their chief executive officers. Next on the USC/MUSC collaborative progress chart is the consolidation of schools of pharmacy located in Charleston and Columbia, with a five-year plan culminating in “one dean, one program, one curriculum, and one faculty,” Greenberg said. He expects the arrangement to translate into “more students, more locations, and more resources.” He said that the goals of the consolidation can be reached by utilizing team teaching, distance education, expanded clinical training opportunities, and the presence of faculty in multiple locations throughout the state. In the meantime, consolidation of the schools of pharmacy will include steps to centralize the administration of the merged College of Pharmacy with administrative offices to be located on the MUSC campus. The dean of the merged college will hold the title of interim assistant vice president for pharmacy education and will report both to MUSC’s provost and USC’s vice president for research and health sciences. The arrangement would require both institutions to maintain their current levels of support for the merged college. Although the pharmacy schools will merge, four-year pharmacy education should continue on both campuses. The availability of pharmacy education in South Carolina should increase as well and distance education should be explored as a tool to bridge the current curricula of the two colleges. In nursing, advisors have been recommended by the deans and invited by the presidents. They will visit both campuses in the fall. The medical schools are exploring models of coordination and are planning a joint retreat this month. And in allied health, collaborative education and research initiatives are being established between programs in physical therapy, speech pathology, and health services and policy research. A research foundation initiative, which is part of the collaborative, will continue its ongoing development of a model to integrate faculty research and intellectual property administration. Consultants retained earlier this year and attorneys will examine best business practices and any legal issues involved. Greenberg presented a positive financial picture of the university, in the sense that the current financial picture is not as bleak as expected. The state imposed a 15 percent cut in travel and telephone expenses, amounting to $1.5 million. A 3 percent cost of living increase was granted for both classified and unclassified employees. Part of the increase, Raymond reminded the faculty, is in the form of an unfunded mandate, meaning that the university must come up with the funds on its own. In addition, $30 million has been preserved for endowed chairs, trauma legislation has passed (without funding), and Medicaid is fully funded. As for the university, Greenberg said that MUSC’s clinical enterprise has “kept the boat going.” He noted a $13,798,477 net increase in fund balance over a $1,100,542 fund balance this time last year. Recapping campus construction projects, Greenberg painted a generally favorable picture for the new hospital, the Children’s Research Institute project, the Hollings Cancer Center addition, the Library/Administration renovation project, the Colcock Hall renovation, and the College of Health Professions project at the old High School of Charleston site on Rutledge Avenue. Fund-raising on the College of Dental Medicine building project is progressing well, Greenberg said. “We are waiting for a bond bill, however.” He said that mixed signals from the state Legislature about passing a bond bill lent a degree of uncertainty to the project. A presentation from Vice President and Provost John Raymond, M.D., provided an update on faculty contracting, a process that Raymond said is desirable to facilitate the communication of expectations between the faculty members and the university. “It aligns faculty interest, skills, and aspirations with the needs of the department or college and facilitates consistency,” he said. Distance education, Raymond said, serves the university in the College of Health Professions, where a number of courses are taught and course work completed online with a minimum of on-site classroom participation. In nursing, similar distance education curricula is conducted online in an R.N. to BSN course, and in master's level courses for neonatal nurse practitioners, nurse educators, and nursing administration. Distance education also plays an important role in the university's collaborations with what is known as the I-26 Video Corridor Project—the ongoing initiative with USC, Clemson, and the Greenville Hospital System. Distance education, Raymond said, “will enable the three principal physician training institutions in South Carolina to overcome distance as a barrier to working together and to foster research collaboration among those institutions.” The search is on, Raymond said, for a dean to replace retiring College of Dental Medicine Dean Richard DeChamplain, DMD. “This search is very important for the future of the college and the university. All of the members of the search committee have been nominated by their peers. I have every confidence that they will attract and evaluate an outstanding pool of candidates capable of leading the college in all three key missions: teaching, research, and clinical care and service.” Raymond also gave a rundown of search committee members for both the
College of Dental Medicine dean position and the replacement for retiring
College of Pharmacy Dean John Cormier, Pharm.D.
Friday, June 11, 2004
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