Meaningful Meetings

When faculty say they have meetings, most eyes glaze over out of fear of boredom. Their fears, my fears are only partially justified.

Three types of faculty exist: those who bring piles of other things to do and pretend to be multitasking, those who only bring a smart phone and are constantly looking in their lap, and those who bring nothing except a cup of coffee. Oh, the fourth type is those who don't show. I tend to be slightly like the first group, with a heavy dose of the third type.

The MCH (Maternal and Child Health) faculty met for 1.5 hours. We meet in a room with mid-20th century hospital green tiles that remain from when this building was a psych hospital. We use this room for all the department faculty meetings. We sit around one long table with the teleconference phone in the middle of the table, regardless of whether anyone calls in. Today, we were fairly focused and moved through the agenda, until we got taking about the characteristics of students and how best to help them learn. At this point, the meeting takes on a faint flavor of group therapy, sharing of horror stories and frustrations. But, in the end, our focus returns to "what can we do" to improve courses and curriculum.

We finished early so I did email. Thankfully nothing urgent. Then off to the next meeting.

The all SPH Faculty meeting is held in a decent room with the new meeting tables arranged in a very large square that does not accommodate everyone. Amazingly, the room was full for this meeting. The room is so large that a second TV screen is mounted on the wall in the middle of the room, so those in the back can see the presentations. The agenda included 45 minutes focused on implementing a intranet in the SPH. (We are so last century!) 

This was followed by a lively discussion of revision of the MPH. Faculty ranged from engaged, defensive, and concerned, but most were moderately supportive. This discussion, while a bit tedious, was true faculty governance; The faculty making decisions about curricula, taking a leadership role in making things happen. The Dean listened, providing occasional reassurance that resources will be available for the revisions, whatever those might eventually be. 

The dilemma was the same ~ how to best structure the courses and the curriculum so that the MPH graduates are ready for jobs and life long learning. It's not an easy dilemma to solve, and that's why we spend so much time focused on it. The world changes, our students change, we change (or not), and all that requires that we do the "same old" in a new way.  The product must evolve.