Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1994 [PAGE 37]

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1994]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

25

Establish the Department of Surgical Oncology, College of Medicine, Chicago

(27) The chancellor at Chicago, with the advice of the Chicago Senate and the College of Medicine, recommends that the Program in Surgical Oncology be changed in status to the Department of Surgical Oncology. The Program in Surgical Oncology was established in 1969 within the Department of Surgery on a par with other divisions such as anesthesiology, urology, cardiothoracic surgery, and orthopaedics. During the last two decades, surgical oncology has emerged as a separate surgical specialty, mostly as a result of newer techniques in instrumentation; application of molecular techniques in diagnosis, prognosis, and adjuvant chemotherapy; use of biologic response modifiers; and the application of gene therapy in the management of various solid tumors. With the continuing advances in the science and craft of surgical oncology, the recognition that this specialty should be given departmental status has been recognized by a number of universities, including the University of Wisconsin, Cornell University, the University of Texas, and the State University of New York in Buffalo. With departmental status, surgical oncology will be in a better position to: (1) attract additional Federal funding; (2) attract tertiary care patients to the University of Illinois Hospital; (3) introduce new, more comprehensive therapy trials in cancer; (4) attract outstanding faculty; and (5) join with other departments of surgical oncology to enter into consortium agreements on prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of solid tumors. Today, the Program in Surgical Oncology is staffed by tenured and tenure-track faculty, has an appropriated budget, offers undergraduate education and graduate fellowship programs, and conducts its own targeted research. The vice president for academic affairs concurs in this recommendation. The University Senates Conference has indicated that no further senate jurisdiction is involved. I recommend approval, pending further action by the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

On motion of Ms. Reese, this recommendation was approved. Establish the Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine, Chicago

(28) The chancellor at Chicago, with the advice of the Chicago Senate and the College of Medicine, recommends that the Program in Emergency Medicine be changed in status to the Department of Emergency Medicine. Emergency Medicine was formed in 1990 as an independent academic and administrative unit, unaffiliated with any other department in the College of Medicine. Emergency medicine is a separate, well-defined specialty whose faculty have full and independent responsibilities for academic and service components of undergraduate medical education, residency programs, and clinical and administrative service at the University of Illinois Hospital. The Program in Emergency Medicine is structured in the same way as are other departments in the College of Medicine. Responsibilities are divided into the academic and clinical obligations, the responsibility for academic appointments for affiliated hospital faculties, and educational activities. In becoming a department, emergency medicine will be able to operate academically and administratively on the same level as other departments in the college and will be recognized both internally and externally as an autonomous unit with all of the attendant responsibilities for emergency medical education, research, and patient care. In addition, elevation to departmental status will permit emergency medicine to compete more effectively in the recruitment of new faculty and residents and in attracting grants and contracts to carry out its mission.