DEAN’S ADVISORY COMMITTEE - Columbia University



Dean’s Advisory Committee

February 13, 2007

6:00 PM

Opening (Dr. Mellman):

Thomas Jackiewicz has been appointed to be the new COO for CUMC. He will attend some future DAC meetings

Ellen Perez, from the admissions office, was welcomed. She will attend some meetings.

Old Business:

LIBRARY (Dr. Molholt)

1. Printers- New printers have been installed. The library is working with sales reps and technicians to aggressively follow up on problems. Printers in Hammer use significantly more toner than projected per page. Students are asked to communicate with Dr. Molholt if educational material from faculty comes with a black or colored background. This type of document seems to be responsible for the excess toner use. Robin Tang indicated that many of our lecturers do this. Allison Barnes mentioned that power point files converted to pdf files default to this type background and suggested that students be given the original power point document to eliminate this problem. In house maintenance is now responsible for technical problems with printers, which should reduce the response time.

Dr. Molholt presented a graph depicting a major increase in pages printed per year, from 500,000 to 2,000,000 pages per year over the last five years, as an illustration of why the printing problem is so difficult. Dan Hall suggested this might be concurrent with a decrease in pages photocopied per year because of the change in the way educational material is presented. The idea of finding a way to shift the printing burden back from computer printers to photocopiers was discussed briefly.

2. Printing Quotas- The downtown campus controls the downtown printing quotas, and will not allow students to combine printing quotas. The ability to convert the downtown quota from a weekly to a semester quota has not been investigated yet.

3. Printing in Residential Areas- The Tower 2 computer is not available due to construction, and the loss of lobby space prevents setting up a printer in that space. The lobby at the elevators for Tower 3 may be an option for printing. The lobby is monitored by camera and has sufficient space. The goal would be to put this in place over the summer so printing is accessible to towers 2 and 3 for next fall.

4. Architect Meeting Times for students to speak with the architect about student needs for the planned renovation of educational space in the Hammer Library are set for 8am February 14th, 4pm February 20th, and a third meeting the following week with the date to be determined.

5. Café- The Café is running well and students appear to be satisfied. This has been a success, and will no longer remain on the agenda. Though different hours might be desirable, this change is not feasible. Hours will be maintained as is.

Millennium Villages Project (Dr. Mellman)- 4th year students are currently at MVP in Sub-Saharan Africa. Feedback from the students and others is positive. Houston Family Foundation and Harold Brown Travel Fund will provide some funding for First year summer experiences at MVP at $2500 per student. The number of students that can be supported remains unclear. Jon Hatoun mentioned the involvement of the Remedy Program in sending hospital supplies. This has been coordinated by the students.

3rd YEAR TRAVEL AND SAFETY (Brian Paquette)-. From the most recent conference call, security offices at each site now will have updated information about the CUMC shuttle schedule and will be a contact for questions and problems as they arise. Signs at the stops should have a phone number to call if there are problems. The rider survey of current riders has not been completed. More information about the rider survey should be available during the next conference call on February 16th. Our internal survey of third year travel needs is in process.

The Allen Pavilion clerkships will now reimburse travel expenses for students leaving after the shuttle stops running regularly (9pm). It was noted that the hospital runs the Allen shuttle and the university runs the Harlem shuttle.

With regard to budgeted travel funds, Dr. Mellman spoke with Ellen Spilker in financial aid to confirm third year funds for travel. The budgeted amount is equivalent to a two way metro ride each day. This should allow students to afford an occasional after-hours cab if needed.

Other options and concerns were raised and discussed. Overnight rooms at Harlem are available but should only be used by medical students as a last resort. If students choose to call a cab, since the volume of yellow cabs is very small, and wait times may be significant, a suggestion was made to call one of the Washington Heights car services. The idea of extending services as needed was discussed. It may be helpful to have a van that students could call for if they need to travel home after regular shuttle hours. This is available at the Allen Pavilion, through NYPH, not CUMC, transportation, though it is unclear if students would use this resource.

3rd YEAR CLERKSHIP EVALUATIONS (Dr. Drusin)- P&S would like to convert 3rd year clerkship evaluations to an online system. This system would be used to evaluate students as well as for students to evaluate those that teach them. Software companies providing this service are being considered. The hospital uses ‘E-value’ for residency evaluations Many medical schools contract with this company to adapt systems for clerkship evaluations. P&S hopes to have a system up in the coming academic year. A major barrier is the cost. ‘E-value’ is very good, but very expensive; a price is under negotiation. Hopefully this electronic system will make it easier to have compliance in completed evaluation timeliness.

As feedback, many students have not received evaluations for clerkships completed 8 weeks ago. Dr. Drusin indicated that 5 weeks is the outlier of acceptability, and that this has been communicated to clerkship directors.

4th YEAR FOCUS GROUP BREAKFASTS ON CURRICULUM (Dr. Mellman)- Dr. Goldman is having three focus group breakfasts with 4th year students, similar to the 2nd year focus groups previously discussed. There is still room to sign up. 4th year students have a lot to say in these focus groups about what works well and suggestions for change.

Regarding the evaluation of all four years of clinical curriculum, Dr. Drusin indicated that this evaluation is in process and 3rd and 4th year students are involved. This clinical subcommittee is headed by Dr. Nickerson.

Regarding the evaluation of the pre-clinical science curriculum, as mentioned in the previous meeting, this is headed by Dr. Garret, Dr. Barasch, and Dr. Spitalnik. Students will be involved.

RECYCLING (Jake Kaufman and Dan Hall)- The progress of reinstituting complete paper recycling was inquired about. Robert Lemieux indicated that the ability to recycle all paper from residential areas is now in place. The ability to sort recyclables appropriately in Bard Hall trash closets was discussed briefly. Concerns about the size and labeling of containers were brought up.

Danielle Treif brought up the students concern about trash on the street outside the hospital and Bard Hall. The students feel this is an embarrassment, particularly during admission tours. Mr. Lemieux agreed that this is a difficult situation. Resource, weather, and city trash policy problems were discussed. Unfortunately, the city requires trash to be piled on the street for collection. People go through these bags of trash, leaving loose trash for the wind to blow down Haven avenue. He is working through sanitation to improve this problem and would like to switch from bags to containers.

TRANSITION COMMITTEE (Robin Tang)- The transition committee plans the 2nd to 3rd year transition. Robin would like to extend this to other transitions, but currently this is the scope. The transition committee is beginning to meet, everything is on track, and will continue to report on their plans.

BOARD PREP (Bill Kernan) The Center for Wellness is working on a large board prep workshop using 3rd year students as a resource for 2nd years approaching Step 1 board exams. Wellness Center has reviewed material to post online, including sample study schedules. A concern was brought up regarding previous sample study schedules. Many students felt these schedules were excessive. Bill Kernan indicated that this years sample study schedules are more reasonable.

EARLY MATCH (Dr. Mellman) The early match, including Ophthalmology, Urology, and Neurosurgery has happened. Dr. Mellman was very pleased at how well our students fared in this early match. The NRMP match is around the corner in March.

Questions about the likelihood of Neurosurgery and other specialties moving to the NRMP match were discussed. Otolaryngology and Neurology have recently moved to the NRMP. A recent lawsuit involving the NRMP was settled. Antitrust issues may no longer be an issue, which may make moving to the NRMP more attractive for specialties not currently in that system.

NIH SUMMER RESEARCH (Dr. Mellman)- We have had more applications (43) than available grants (28) for NIH summer research funding. Other funding information is being passed along to first year students. The selection committee is meeting and the results for NIH funding will be available in early March.

P&S CLUB RENOVATION (Andrea Sturtevant)- P&S club renovation is complete, including the group meeting place. Computing facilities may be added later. If P&S club groups would like to use the room, the group leader should email Andrea.

STUDENT WORK HOURS (Kara Kerscher)- Kara indicated that the student work hours problem has not been resolved for Roosevelt Surgery. Dr. Drusin thought it had been resolved. This was discussed. There has been a belief among students that a 36 hour shift was required to get honors in surgery at Roosevelt. Dr. Drusin said this is not the case, there is no requirement for a 36 hour shift. The P&S policy is that medical students should not be required to work longer hours than residents. Kara indicated that, though the course director is supportive of this policy, the residents are still not on board. Jake Kaufman suggested that leaving the 36-hour shift open on a ‘voluntary’ basis is unlikely to work with a policy that doesn’t penalize students for not ‘volunteering’. Kara will track this problem and follow up. Dr. Drusin indicated that if the problem is not resolved he will discuss it with individuals farther up the chain of command.

New Business:

WALKOUT: ANTI-WAR RALLY (Dr. Mellman)- Some members of the Morningside Campus community are staging a walkout this Thursday. Dr. Mellman asked if anyone has heard anything about medical center participation? No committee members had any information.

MCY UPDATES – (Brian Paquette) The lottery process was discussed. Students will assemble into groups of 1-4 students. Students will be assigned a random number, and have suggested that this doesn’t need to occur in their presence. The registrar is working on an appropriate system for random number generation. Different strategies of number assignment within a group were discussed. A concern was raised that if each individual was assigned a number, and the groups assigned number was the lowest number of any individual, this would disadvantage small groups. Groups of four would be much more likely to get a very low number than groups of one. Ideas such as averaging all numbers for individuals within a group or allowing only one draw per group were discussed.

The primary care lottery may be bundled into the overall lottery.

SECURITY (Danielle Trief and Brian Hwang)- Brian suggested developing a centralized online health sciences security reporting system. Students are concerned about the accessibility of information relating to off campus security in the area. Neighborhood events don’t seem to be reported on the Columbia University Security website. Students have expressed concerns about being victims of crimes and not wanting to report. The reason for this reporting barrier is not clear and was met with concern from Dr. Mellman and Dr. Drusin. Brian was asked to determine the nature of the events that aren’t being reported.

HAMMER FACILITIES (Robert Lemieux)-

1. Construction:- Work on the fifth floor of Hammer has been very difficult for everyone because of the nature of the work. This work is going forward and most of the noisiest work is complete. Feedback from students indicates that overall disruptiveness is better than at the beginning, though still not ideal.

2. Heating:- The Heating system in Hammer is being redone. This has taken a long time because work was restricted to 4.5 hours from 6pm to 10:30pm. Now there are fewer restrictions, and the work will be completed in 2-3 weeks. The point person for heating problems is the Maintenance Control Center (MCC). The phone number for the MCC is 305-3753.

Heating complaints about areas outside of Hammer were quite frequent during the recent cold-snap. Complaints were made about heat in the admissions suite, the P&S student lounge, and Bard Hall. Dr. Mellman suggested that we have a chronic problem exacerbated by acute problems during a cold-snap. A steam line break on the fifth floor of Bard shut down heat for a while. This was fixed fairly quickly, but caused a loss of heat that the old system was not able to keep up with. Ellen Perez mentioned that the admissions office and suite were problematic because of their location by the front door to the P&S building. This location is important for admissions, but makes managing cold difficult. Stopgap measures of space heaters were discussed. Mr. Lemieux indicated that this was against fire code and would also cause circuit problems.

BARD HALL HOUSING PROBLEMS (Vik Saxena)- Multiple problems with Bard Hall, ranging from housekeeping to infrastructure, have been discussed in the housing committee. It is very difficult to solve these problems due to the lack of funding. These problems are significant because of how severe they are, because of how they impact student life, and because of the message that they give prospective students. Vik suggested we begin earmarking money for Bard Housing improvements. Dr. Mellman suggested we table this discussion until next month, when the COO may attend. Dr. Mellman indicated that Dean Goldman is aware of the problems and believes they should be addressed. Bob Lemieux indicated that the answer to these problems was to tear down the building. Vik Saxena suggested that certain less costly improvements could be made that would have a major impact on quality of life, such as replacing the windows. The current windows are from the 1930s. Jake Kaufman mentioned that replacing the windows would be a bad idea because motivation for tearing the building down would wane.

The next DAC meeting will take place Tuesday, March 13th

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