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Faculty Senate meeting: next year's major issues The Faculty Senate met Oct. 2 and was called to order by Adrian Reuben, M.D. The next meeting will be held at 7:45 Tuesday, Nov. 6, in the Administration/Library Building, room 107.   Reuben welcomed new senators. He noted that sign-up sheets for the four standing senate committees were being distributed and urged everyone to sign up for one committee. He also asked those senators who would be working on the Gender Equity Study Group to join the Faculty Affairs Committee, as that is where this particular issue will be assigned when it comes to the senate for consideration. He briefly explained the election process for senate executive committee and officers. His final report as senate chairman will be issued in the form of a letter to the faculty and will be posted on the faculty senate web site. The focus of the meeting was the major issues the Senate must deal with in the coming year. Legal Counsel Initiative  Anne Spencer, Pharm.D., reported that the checks were being deposited in batches of 100 and all should be in the bank within the next few weeks. She urged senators to continue encouraging their colleagues to contribute to this important initiative, so faculty will have expert advice and assistance in reviewing the documents by which faculty life is governed at MUSC: contracts, the Faculty Handbook, and new policies. One lawyer has been interviewed and a second will be interviewed very soon. One or both will be selected to work with the senate as documents come up for review. Revision of Faculty Handbook Reuben explained the process by which the Faculty Handbook will be revised and updated under the guidance of the Governance Committee. The current handbook has been annotated with color-coded categories of revisions. A full description may be found in the minutes of the September meeting. Both the official version and the working draft will be available on the Faculty Senate web site during the revision process.  Parking Reuben read a letter from John Sutusky, Ph.D., reaffirming his commitment to respond to faculty concerns about parking on campus. In particular, the letter addressed improved cleanliness in the parking facilities and a more flexible system of adjudication for parking tickets. Faculty who cannot appear at the normally scheduled sessions of “traffic court” may set up an appointment for another time. Committee Appointments Ramita Bonadonna agreed to represent the senate on the provost’s planning group for seminars related to the September terrorist attacks. Paul Gold, Ph.D., will represent the senate on the Advisory Group for the Catalyst, which is being established at the request of President Greenberg. Gender Equity Study Group This group is being revitalized and the senate will be more closely involved. A number of senators, including Kit Simpson, DPH, and DeAnna Cheek, M.D., Janice Lage, M.D., Susan Tate, M.D., and Ramita Bonadonna, Ph.D., have agreed to serve on this group. The senate’s Faculty Affairs Committee will manage this issue when it comes to the senate.  E-mail Attachment Policy Reuben announced a new security measure which has been adopted in the wake of the recent nimda worm attack, which brought down a number of servers on the campus network. All e-mail attachments which have executable suffixes (like .exe, .htm, .html, .bat and others) will have an additional suffix (.xyz) added to the filename, so they will not be able to run automatically. The recipient will need to be rename the file, if they want to open and run the attachment. Tenure at MUSC Tenure is one of the significant issues which must be addressed during the Faculty Handbook revision. A couple of recent issues underscore the importance of ensuring that governing documents and new policies appropriately acknowledge tenure. A recent rumor that the College of Medicine plans to do away with tenure was said to be absolutely false by Dean Joseph G. Reves, M.D. The question of whether faculty who sign up for the TERI Program lose tenure was brought up at a recent President’s Council meeting. After some research, it was determined that tenured faculty would retain all the rights and privileges of tenure if they join the TERI Program. Still questionable is whether faculty who sign up for TERI can apply for and receive tenure.   Concern was raised that some department chairs are using a faculty member’s participation in TERI as a reason to withhold raises and single them out for staffing cutbacks. Post-Tenure Review Document Senators Philip Privitera, Ph.D., Subbi Mathur, Ph.D., and Jerry Webb met with the deans to negotiate a modification to the document which had been approved by the senate. A single point of disagreement, regarding a permanent increase in base pay, was the focus of the discussion. Privitera noted that the group agreed to the permanent increase, but the approval would come from the department chair rather than the dean. With this single change, the document is ready to go forward to the Board of Trustees. Human Subjects Compliance Tutorial Philippe Arnaud, Ph.D., requested that the senate look into the requirement that all faculty researchers working with human subjects complete an online tutorial produced by the University of Miami by Nov. 1. Arnaud was concerned about the deadline and whether completion would be approved by NIH. The Academic Compliance Office, in a letter from Ken Roozen, Ph.D., had notified faculty of the requirement and deadline about two months ago. The tutorial takes four hours to complete. It was noted that the rules regarding the use of human subjects in research are changing very quickly and shall continue to do so for the near term. Since the senate cannot resolve this issue before the Nov. 1 deadline, Reuben suggested that researchers complete the tutorial. The issue of compliance requirements can be discussed at future senate meetings, if the senate so wishes. Mission-Based Management (MBM) Although there is no formal MBM at MUSC, Reuben noted that faculty time is being more regulated through contracts. As a result, some faculty feel they cannot serve on the senate, because their time commitments do not allow it. Reuben observed that senate membership is considered as service by some and as administrative time by others. Of concern is the threat to full faculty involvement in this governing body which considers and deliberates vital faculty issues. MUSC Strategic Plan  Reuben solicited faculty participation in the 2002 MUSC Strategic Plan initiative, which is getting under way. Faculty may post signed or anonymous comments on the Strategic Plan web site. The site is accessible from a large red button in the upper right corner of the MUSC homepage <http://www.musc.edu>. Senate Election Results  Final results of the recent elections were discussed and a roster of the new senate was distributed. There are 38 full senators and six alternates. Alternates may vote at meetings if senators in their electoral unit are absent. The rate of participation in the election improved slightly over last year, but remained disappointing: CHP—44 percent, LSI—93 percent, COM-BS—21 percent, COM-CS—19 percent, CON— no candidates, COD—no candidates, COP—38 percent.  In response to a question about confusion over the use of e-mail accounts to access the voting site, Reuben explained that the MUSC Network Account (MNA) is used to authorize access. Groupwise accounts cannot be used to access the voting site.  Proclamation and Presentation Richard Hernandez, Dr.P.H., presented Reuben with a plaque commemorating his unprecedented three-year tenure as chairman of the MUSC Faculty Senate. The following proclamation accompanied the presentation: Whereas: Adrian Reuben has served as the chair of the faculty senate for three consecutive years; and Whereas: He has unselfishly given his time and talent in service to the faculty of the Medical University of South Carolina; and Whereas: We originally planned to ask for faculty contributions to build a building that we would name the Adrian Reuben Center for Faculty Excellence, but changed our minds after our legal council experience; Therefore: We the representatives of the faculty of the Medical University of South Carolina do hereby present to you this token of our appreciation for your leadership, friendship, and sustained commitment to participatory faculty governance at this institution.   A standing ovation and some personal tributes to Reuben followed the presentation. Election of Executive Committee and Officers The following senators were elected by their electoral units to serve on the executive committee: Philippe Arnaud, College of Medicine, Basic Sciences; Anne Kilpatrick, College of Health Professions; Mary Mauldin, Library Science & Informatics; Kit Simpson, College of Pharmacy; Subbi Mathur, College of Medicine, Clinical Sciences; Francine Margolius, College of Nursing; Luis Leite, College of Dental Medicine   The new officers of the Senate will be: Anne Kilpatrick, chair; Francine Margolius, vice chair; and Subbi Mathur, secretary.