The Aims for BSD Action Planning Committees concluded deliberations and submitted their final report to Dean Madara on June 9th, 2003. The report can be viewed and downloaded from the Aims web page at http://aims.bsd.uchicago.edu.

A total of 83 personnel were invovled in the action planning phase of the Aims process, including 65 faculty drawn from every BSD department plus faculty representatives from the Physical Sciences Division and Argonne National Laboratory. In addition, 7 current student trainees from the Pritzker School of Medicine, BSD Graduate and Joint Degree Programs, Residency and Clinical Fellowship Programs participated, as well as 11 BSD/UCH administrators. The process, formally begun in December 2002, wrapped up its efforts in just over 5 months time.

The Action Planning Committees used the primary and sub-aim recommendations generated by the Original Aims Committee as starting points, then deliberated in depth on the key challenges and opportunities facing the Division. Three Planning groups were created, one in each mission area. Holly Humphrey, M.D., Professor in the Department of Medicine and Director of Housestaff & Student Programs, chaired the Education Committee; Fabrizio Michelassi, M.D., Thomas D. Jones Professor in the Department of Surgery, chaired the Clinical Committee; and leading the Research Committee were Chair Harinder Singh, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Co-Chair Julian Solway, M.D., Ph.D., the Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Medicine.

The Planning groups echoed many of the concerns of the Original Aims Committee, which was chaired by Drs. Janet Rowley and Vinay Kumar, including the importance of creating a culture of measured accomplishment and accountability that appropriately recognizes and rewards faculty effort. The 75-page report, in fact, placed faculty retention as the centerpiece in its list of key challenges facing the Division.

Among the many highlights in the final report are the creation of several key faculty-led committees to advise the Dean in critical mission areas, including a new Executive Committee for the Practice Plan, a Divisional Teaching Allocation Committee, and a Research Advisory Committee. In addition, the Clinical Aims recommended the creation of a new Dean of Clinical Strategy, and the Research Aims recommended a new Associate Dean of Academic Affairs.

The “biggest” recommendation came from the Research group, which recommended that the Division build new research space in addition to the Interdivisional Research Building, which is due to come on line

in Spring 2005. The rationale for the new building was based on the intractable problem of accummulated deferred mainte?nance in older existing structures. The Research Aims group argued that the absence of additional new replacement space might place the BSD at a disadvantage in the competitive biological sciences market. Additional new space was also seen as having particularly important benefits for the research programs in clinical departments. These departments, which account for 68% of total annual NIH funding using 44% of the Division’s total research space, are situated in some of BSD’s lowest quality space. The Research Aims urged the Division to redress this imbalance, and in fact subordinated expansion of the research faculty to investments in new space and critical core facilities. The Research Committee argued that synchronizing these investments should help the Division reduce attrition, aid in faculty recruitment and development, and make the Division more competitive overall in attracting external funding.

As for the Aims process itself, the focus now shifts to implementation. As a means of assisting the Dean in this process, and in order to allow greater faculty input on the recommendations, the Division will hold a series of open meetings led by the Action Planning Committee Chairs to discuss the Aims, their rationales, and to solicit faculty suggestions for implementation. The first of these meetings will be held in September, and the Dean plans to use input from these meetings in finalizing his implementation plan. The Aims web page - http://aims.bsd.uchicago.edu - as well as the Aims Update section on page 5 of Peer Review will be used as a public forum detailing the Division's progress in implementing the recommendations.

Aims Updates
Removal of Public Distinction of Title, Modest Expansion of the Research Faculty, Academic Affairs, Cost Reduction...

EDUCATION
Holly Humphrey, M.D., Professor in the Department of Medicine, Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program, and Associate Dean of Students in the Pritzker School of Medicine, was named the new Dean of Medical Education...

FOREFRONT
Emile Bacha, M.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery and Director of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, has performed two remarkable surgical firsts in the last 6 months...

DEVELOPMENT
The BSD and the Hospitals are major partners in The Chicago Initiative, the University's current campaign to raise $2 billion. Within the Initiative, $550 million is set as the target for Spark Discovery, Illuminate Life, the combined BSD/UCH effort...

ACCOLADES
Recent Awards and Grants Information for Biological Sciences Division Faculty

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
Recent Recruitemnts and Appointments of Biological Sciences Division Faculty

Dollars & Sense
BSD met its financial targets for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2003. Preliminary results indicate...

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Biological Sciences Division
The University of Chicago 5741 S. Maryland Ave, Chicago, IL 60637
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