The SoM has established the following four Elected Faculty Councils with specified roles and duties for the purpose of complying Faculty Code section 23-45C that states: “Each school or college shall have an elected faculty council or councils which shall advise the dean on matters of faculty promotion and tenure, and advise the dean on matters involving academic policy, including priorities, resource and salary allocation, and budgets.”
The School of Medicine Code of Organization and Procedures provides additional information about the faculty councils.
Why should you consider volunteering for the faculty senate? Read about it here. You may also visit this page to learn about the SoM Curriculum Governance Committees.
Learn about the work of each council, meeting schedules, and how to get involved below.
Council on Academic Affairs
The Council on Academic Affairs advises the Dean and Medical School Executive Committee (MSEC) on matters that may impact academic programs. These matters include academic policy, curriculum, student progress, priorities, resource allocations, and budgets for academic programs. It also addresses School of Medicine faculty, student and trainee inquiries and comments regarding these matters.
Meetings
The Faculty Council on Academic Affairs meets on the second Tuesday of every even month.
To learn more about this council, please contact Alson Burke at akburke@uw.edu or the immediate past-chair, Fiona Gallahue at fiogal@uw.edu.
Council on Appointments and Promotions
The Council on Appointments and Promotions advises the Dean and Medical School Executive Committee (MSEC) on matters that may impact faculty appointment, promotion, and tenure. It also addresses School of Medicine faculty inquiries and comments concerning policies that involve faculty appointment, promotion, and tenure.
Meetings
The Council on Appointments and Promotions has 15-20 three-hour meetings between October and January. Meetings are scheduled based on a quorum of the council rather than a regular schedule.
To learn more about this council, please contact Karen Stout at stoutk@uw.edu or Jennifer Mercado at jmercado@uw.edu.
Recent Work
The council recently worked on piloting a standardized template letter of evaluation for internal referees. They also revised the external solicitation letter template to limit the number of pages and ask reviewers not to repeat information found elsewhere in the promotion materials. In addition, the council created a new self-assessment template as a guide for faculty to use in their promotional materials. These changes will hopefully streamline the review process and create time efficiencies.
Council on Research and Graduate Education
The Council on Research and Graduate Education (CORGE) advises the Dean and Medical School Executive Committee (MSEC) on matters that may impact the research enterprise and addresses School of Medicine (SoM) faculty inquiries and comments regarding research matters. It also advises the Dean and MSEC on Ph.D. graduate education and postdoctoral training, as well as SoM faculty, student, and postdoctoral inquiries regarding these education and training matters.
Meetings
The Council on Research and Graduate Education meets on the second Thursday of every month and additional meetings are convened on the request of the Dean or the Chair for more urgent agenda items.
To learn more about this council, please contact Sandra Bajjalieh at bajjalie@uw.edu or Amy Serafino amyj14@uw.edu
Recent Work
- Science in Medicine (SiM) Lectures: The SiM Lecture Series recognizes School of Medicine faculty research achievements and provides an opportunity for researchers to explore topics outside of their immediate fields. CORGE’s SiM speaker selection committee recruits and receives SiM speaker nominations from members of the School of Medicine scientific community and chooses a well-balanced panel of speakers that fall into four different lecture categories: New Investigator, Collaborative Science, Distinguished Scientist, and Annual Lecture.
- Postdoc and Graduate Student Climate Survey: CORGE is distributing a survey to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the SoM to collect data on the climate of their training environment and how it has affected their education and research training. The survey is designed to capture experiences with mentorship, resources, discrimination, and harassment while at the UW and identify areas where trainees can be better served by our academic community.
- Advocacy for Childcare Resources: CORGE has for several years engaged in discussions with the SoM Dean, UW HR and others in leadership to expand on-campus childcare resources available to students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and staff. Overall, CORGE identified lack of adequate onsite childcare resources as a major driver of inequity, that disproportionately affects women, primary care givers, staff and students with less economic resources. We continue our conversations with the SoM leadership and UW HR to achieve meaningful progress in expanding onsite childcare at University of Washington especially for infants under 18 months of age.
- Campus Safety: CORGE engages regularly with leaders in campus safety to address ongoing safety issues at worksites that affect students, faculty and employees within the UW biomedical research enterprise. CORGE played a key role in advocating for enhanced bike locker security at SLU and for greater restrictions on badge access within the Health Sciences Buildings.
Council on University Relations
The current members of Faculty Council of University Relations (FCUR) represent 8 clinical and 4 basic science departments as Faculty Senators from the School of Medicine (SoM). Members are elected to this committee to facilitate bidirectional inquiries, initiatives, and matters of concern between SoM faculty and the Dean as well as Faculty Senate of the University of Washington.
About
The Roles and Duties of the Faculty Council on University Relations:
- Advise the Dean and Medical Staff Executive Committee on deliberations of the faculty senate and its subcommittees with particular relevance to the School of Medicine and other matters relevant to enhancing the School’s relationship with the University as a whole
- Be advised by the Dean and the Councils and Appointments and Promotions, Academic Affairs, and Research and Graduate Education about policies, initiatives, and other matters in the SoM that require representation and articulation in the faculty senate
- Facilitate effective representation in the faculty senate of inquiries, initiatives, and matters of concern raised by SoM faculty members through the School’s elected senators
Meetings
The Faculty Council on University Relations meets on the third Friday of every month and additional meetings are convened on the request of the Dean or the Chair for more urgent agenda items.
To learn more about this council, please contact Sumedha Kidd at sumedha1@uw.edu or Aarti Bhat at aarti.bhat@uw.edu
Recent Work
- Clinical Practice Faculty Title: The FCUR supported Faculty Senate initiative to create this new academic job title that recognizes the value of instructional faculty who focus on clinical teaching, service, and scholarship. This newly legislated title gives clinical faculty longer contracts with similar rights and voting privileges as the other SoM faculty titles, benefiting recruitment and retention of outstanding clinical teachers.
- Changes to the Non-complete Clause: The FCUR engaged in early and productive dialogue with the Physician Groups’ Leadership and advocated for a removal of the non-compete clause from contracts for all clinical departments, in part to improve recruitment and retention of new faculty. After careful consideration, the UW Physicians (UWP) and Children’s University Medical Group (CUMG) amended their hiring policies to remove non-compete clauses for most SoM clinical departments. We celebrate this first step in policy change and support the plan for next steps, which includes exploring additional recruitment and retention strategies and extending the new policy to include all departments.
- Salary Unit Adjustment Policy and Practice: The FCUR meets regularly with the Dean around SoM policy and process for implementing department-level unit salary adjustments. Overall, the FCUR supports the increasing transparency of the review process and discussion of the trade-offs each department must make to address long-term salary compression, retention incentives, and competitive salaries for new hires. FCUR has also been invited to represent faculty in the SoM Salary & Promotion Equity Review Committee to provide ongoing input and to manage and disseminate a school wide report on a regular basis.
- SoM Dean Search. FCUR was privileged to represent SoM faculty in the recently concluded search and interview process for the Dean, Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, and CEO of UW Medicine. We are delighted to continue working with Dean Dellit and welcome his continued leadership.