The University of Wisconsin’s Faculty Senate heard a recommendation for the creation of the Department of Emergency Medicine in UW’s School of Medicine and Public Health at a meeting Monday.
Professor Robert Golden, dean of School of Medicine and Public Health, presented a proposal for the creation of a new Department of Emergency Medicine, which has been approved by the Division of Emergency Medicine faculty in the Department of Medicine and many other committees.
Golden said Emergency Medicine is a central discipline in the field of medicine. It is one of the most popular specialties for UW medical students, which regularly recruits a large portion of each graduating class into its ranks, he said.
There are currently no tenured or tenure-track faculty with primary appointments in Emergency Medicine, but five tenured faculty in related disciplines have accepted invitations to assume joint governance appointments once the proposal to establish the department is approved and begins operation, Golden said.
The senate also approved an amendment to UW’s Faculty Policies and Procedures and heard annual reports from the Public Representation Organization of the Faculty Senate and from the Committee on Women in the University.
Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor, chair of the Ad-Hoc Interdivisional Curriculum Committee, led the discussion on the amendment on UW’s Faculty Policies and Procedures.
Concerns about the structure of the course approval process arose two years ago because course review and tenure review are time consuming, Taylor said. In addition, the course approval process was cumbersome and some members in divisional committees said they did not have the proper expertise in curriculum matters to adequately review course proposals and that the old model did not allow time for proper training related to course review, she said.
Taylor said the Ad Hoc committee and all four divisional executive committees have voted to eliminate the Interdivisional Conference Committee and move the course approval process from the divisional executive committees to the University Curriculum Committee.
Fac Senate also heard annual reports at the meeting. Bill Tracy, president of PROFS, a non-profit organization representing UW faculty, said the organization made achievements in leading campaigns for pre-tax retirement contributions, enacting domestic partner benefits for faculty and staff, implementing first-day health insurance coverage and maintaining focus on competitive compensation that contributed to increasing pay plans and catch-up plans in the previous year.
Tracy said in 2012-2013 PROFS focused on its membership campaign and continued to reach out to faculty in order to replace retiring members. Although there were a large number of retirements, the group’s membership still held steady at approximately 800 members, Tracy said.
