Liaison Committee on Medical Education to meet with Academic Senate during visit


The Academic Senate’s request to be involved the with upcoming Liaison Committee on Medical Education visit has been granted.

During the LCME visit next week, four faculty members will be invited to spend 45 minutes with LCME members to discuss their concerns about the College of Medicine.

Jim McDonald, A-Senate chairman, is organizing the meeting.

“I sent a request to LCME myself and they came back and said four faculty members could (talk) for a total of 45 minutes,” McDonald said. “I’m on the committee and I’m forming it.”

The LCME will be on campus from Sunday through Nov. 16.

McDonald originally sent an email about the visit to University President George Ross and Ernest Yoder, founding dean of CMED, on Nov. 2. He said he received no response.

He called their lack of communication “frustrating.”

“I hadn’t heard anything, so I made my own outreach to the LCME accreditation team and they granted it,” McDonald said.

On Thursday, he sent a direct request to LCME and his message was returned in less than 24 hours.

McDonald said the four faculty members have not yet been selected. He said they will not be there to discuss their problems with the university, but with accreditation issues.

“They’re only interested in concerns about the standards the medical school is addressing and asking them to accredit them in,” McDonald said.

Faculty Association President Laura Frey said she will not be selected for the meeting, but is supportive of the A-Senate.

She said a possible reason the LCME had not previously looked into the FA’s opinion is because the university kept it off its radar.

“It wasn’t the LCME that didn’t intend it, but the CMU administration,” Frey said.

Tensions over CMED reached a peak during the A-Senate meeting on Nov. 1, when David Smith, professor of philosophy and religion, presented a resolution aimed at halting work on the CMED.

The resolution read “all work by, toward, and on behalf of the College of Medicine pertaining to curriculum, non-curricular policies and procedures, and faculty recruitment be suspended until such time as the above concerns have been addressed by and to the satisfaction of the Academic Senate.”

Although it passed with a 76-percent vote, it is unclear what type of response the action will garner.

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