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UB eyes January start for School of Public Health
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
The proposed School of Public Health could be in place at UB as early as January, the Faculty Senate Executive Committee learned at its weekly meeting yesterday.
During a presentation on the new school by Maurizio Trevisan, interim dean of the School of Health Related Professions, Provost Elizabeth D. Capaldi told senators she would like the new school to be up and running by the beginning of the spring semester to facilitate fundraising and other support for the school.
The new school should be operating as soon as possible, she said, so that the university can begin raising money. “It’s hard to (raise money) when the school doesn’t exist,” she said, noting the university will be talking to people at the federal, state and private foundation levels.
Since UB would like to request federal funds for the school and the federal government will begin its budget preparations in January, “we want to go to Washington with a school approved,” she said.
“The time to strike on public health is now,” added President William R. Greiner. “It’s another fallout from the world around us; suddenly, the value of public health is clearly seen.”
Moreover, it’s better administratively that the new school begin operating during the semester break, rather than during the semester, since two departments will be moving and may have trouble keeping track of credit hours and grants, Capaldi said, noting that the entire system “runs on teaching responsibilities and credit hours for the budget.”
The School of Public Health would be formed via the merger of the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine (SPM) in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences—which Trevisan chairs—into the School of Health Related Professions. The name of HRP would be changed to the School of Public Health. The Department of Biotechnical and Clinical Laboratory Sciences (BCLS), currently housed in HRP, would move to the medical school.
Capaldi noted that the effort does not require approval from SUNY central administration, since it does not involve the creation of a new school per se, just the moving of departments and a formal school name change.
The new School of Public will “lead the pack” in how it defines the modern school of public health, Trevisan said. The school will include not only the traditional public health disciplines—epidemiology, biostatistics, health administration, behavioral health and environmental health—but also will incorporate the health professions like occupational therapy, physical therapy, exercise science and nutrition.
The school will “train public health scientists and health professionals in the public health environment,” he said.
The other goal of the new school, he said, is to collaborate with other schools and units on campus to create joint programs similar to the M.P.H./M.D. and M.P.H./J.D. programs already offered at UB through SPM. Under discussion are joint programs with social work, nursing and geography, he said, adding that the idea is not to create another “kingdom,” but to have the school serve as a place where individuals from many disciplines can interact.
Trevisan, Capaldi and Michael Cohen, chair of the Faculty Senate, pointed out that the proposal to create the School of Public Health has been reviewed and debated within HRP, SPM and BCLS, as well as within the Faculty Council, the governance body of the medical school. There has been no opposition raised to the proposal from any area, they noted, although individual faculty members affected by the proposal have expressed concerns about such things as tenure review and other personnel matters.
Capaldi noted that the Provost’s Office would keep track of those issues in order to protect affected faculty members.
The proposal currently is being reviewed by the Faculty Senate Academic Planning Committee, which was instructed yesterday by the FSEC to submit its report on the plan to that body.
In other business at yesterday’s meeting, Judith Adams-Volpe, director of university and external relations for the Arts & Sciences Libraries and chair of the Intercollegiate Athletics Board, updated committee members about the NCAA certification process. She told senators that the NCAA peer-review team had visited UB last week and “grilled” members of the steering committee and its subcommittees that had prepared the university’s self-study report.
By all accounts, the review team was “absolutely blown away” by UB’s self-study report, which may have been the most comprehensive, thorough, cohesive and well-done report the team had ever seen, Adams-Volpe said. UB should receive a preliminary report from the review team in about three weeks, and the university will have an opportunity to respond at that time, she said, adding that the final word on whether UB will be reaccredited should come in April.
In addition to updating senators on the accreditation process, Adams-Volpe presented a report on the IAB’s role at the university, which she described as being one of oversight.
The IAB reviews monthly UB’s intercollegiate athletics budget, keeping tabs on such things as gender equity, gate receipts, sponsorships, money from concessions, scholarships and revenue from such special events as the Baby Joe Mesi fight.
As well as keeping track of budget matters, the IAB also looks at the academic records of UB’s student-athletes. The university can be proud, Adams-Volpe said, in that the overall cumulative QPA for student-athletes is 2.88—higher than the university average—with nearly 47 percent of student-athletes considered to be scholar athletes with a QPA of 3.0 or higher.