Chair report for the Academic Sections Coordinating Committee

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Winter 2000 by De Muth, James E

The Academic Sections Coordinating Committee (ASCC) serves as an important interface between the seven academic Sections and the Association Officers and Staff. The Chair of the ASCC represents the Sections on the AACP Board of Directors and communicates Section issues to the Board, as well as Board actions and discussions to the Section officers.

ABSTRACT REVIEW

Abstracts for posters to be presented at the annual meeting are peer reviewed and fall into two general categories: 1) Section-specific or 2) non-Section-specific. The guidelines and criteria for submission and review of these abstracts were developed by the ASCC in 1997. In the past, abstracts submitted in the non-Section-specific category, were reviewed by subcommittee(s) of the ASCC. Each reviewer rates the abstracts on objectives, methodology, results, and implications as stated in the published criteria. In 1998 and 1999 there were 100 abstracts submitted in the non-Section-specific categories of Administrative, Institutional, and Programmatic Issues; Educational Research; or Educational Strategies. This created a tremendous responsibility and time commitment for the five volunteers who reviewed all the submissions. To lessen this workload, all Officers of the seven Sections were apprised of the previous problems and requested to help with the 2000 review process. In total six teams, each consisting of three reviewers, were established and these 18 reviewers shared the responsibility for the reviews. The process was greatly improved. In 2000 there were 126 non-Section-specific abstracts reviewed, of which 105 were accepted.

PLANNING OF THE TEACHERS SEMINAR

The ASCC assists in the planning of the Teachers Seminar associated with the Annual Meeting. The topic for this year's meeting in San Diego will be "Developing Professional Attitudes and Behaviors in Pharmacy Students and Faculty." The ASCC selected civility and professionalism as the focus for the 2000 meeting. The seminar will provide a forum to discuss and update faculty skills required in an educational environment for productive interactions with pharmacy students. Working in small groups under the direction of Bruce A. Berger (Auburn), participants will consider cases of incivility in class and outside of class, and share preventive and corrective measures faculty may employ. David A. Latif (Shenandoah) will introduce the concept of cognitive moral development, how cognitive moral development is related to clinical decision making, and how faculty can encourage the moral development of students. In the afternoon session, Dana P. Hammer (Colorado) will facilitate small group considerations of professionalism, professional behaviors, and professional attitudes: how they are defined, taught, and assessed. The AACP staff did an excellent job of finalizing the contents and speakers for this seminar.

JOINT MEETINGS WITH THE COF ADMINISTRATIVE BOARD

The ASCC and the Council of Faculties (COF) Administrative Board conducted two joint meetings this year on Saturday. July 3, 1999 in Boston, MA and February 24, 2000 in Richmond, VA. Those in attendance at the joint ASCC/COF meeting discussed several topics of mutual interest and addressed the problems associated with reviewing the non-Section-specific abstracts. The Administrative Board of the COF generously offered to help review the posters, but such assistance was not necessary with this year's review process.

SECTION ACTIVITIES

Biological Sciences. Due to several illnesses of the Section Officers this past year has been a quiet one, given to reviewing goals for upcoming years and assessment of the roles of teachers of biological sciences in pharmacy curricula as they convert to entry-level Pharm.D. programs. The election for new chair-elect of the Section was unusual in that it ended in a tie between the two candidates. A runoff election was necessitated and resulted in election of Tim Tracy (University of West Virginia). The Section has planned a robust program for the San Diego meeting. In conjunction with medicinal chemists and pharmaceutics faculty, the Section will present a discussion on Pharm.D./Ph.D. degree programs. Also, Dr. Robert Jacobs (University of California Santa Barbara) will discuss the pharmacology of anti-inflammatory drugs and marine organism models of inflammation. There will be some discussion of natural product anti-inflammatories isolated from marine organisms. Finally, the Section will cosponsor the addresses by the Paul Dawson Biotechnology Award winner and the Volweiler Research Achievement Award winner.

Chemistry. The organization and assignment of Chemistry Section committees began in late August and was completed by midSeptember. A complete list of all committee Chairs and members can be found on the Chemistry Section Web Page (http://www.aacp.org/Sections/chem/main/chemistry.html). Each committee was given an initial charge of reviewing existing documents and establishing and prioritizing goals for the year. These goals were submitted to the Chairs by the end of October and have provided direction for all of the committees. A summary of committee activities reported are summarized as follows. The Awards Committee (Chair: Michael Mokotoff, University of Pittsburgh) submitted normnations for the Distinguished Pharmacy Educator Award and the Volwiler Research Achievement Award. The committee did not choose anyone for the Paul Dawson Biotechnology Award since a member the committee was nominated for this award by his school. The Nominating Committee (Chair: Paul Schiff, University of Pittsburgh) has submitted the names of Michael Mokotoff and Robin Zavod (Midwestern University) as candidates for election to the position of Chair-elect beginning July, 2001. A call for additional nominations will be accepted at the July 2000 business meeting. The Program Committee (Chair: Jim Knittel, University of Cincinnati) has developed a session entitled "How Should Chemistry be Taught in the New PharmD Curriculum?" which will be presented during the Wednesday morning (July 12) Section Program Session. Additionally, the cornmittee has worked in conjunction with the Sections of Biological Sciences and Pharmaceutics to establish a jointly sponsored program which will review the state of the PharmD/PhD dual degree programs in member institutions. The Mentoring Committee (Chair: Paul Schiff, University of Pittsburgh) has been active in recruiting junior, medicinal chemistry faculty to participate in the Section Mentoring Program. One hundred letters were sent to faculty located at 47 Colleges/Schools of Pharmacy within 36 states. The committee is currently working to establish mentoring groups for those who have responded. In addition, previously established groups have been retained, and three new groups were formed as a result of meetings and discussion at the 1999 Annual Meeting. The Communications Committee (Chair: Marvin Pankaskie) has maintained and improved the Section web site, has assisted other Committee chairs in conducting online surveys and reporting their results, has initiated a monthly "mini-newsletter" via the Section listserv, and has established liaisons with other chemistry-related organizations such as the American Chemical Society, the American Society of Pharmacognosy, the American Pharmaceutical Association, and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. The Excellence in Teaching Committee (Chair: Mattias Lu, UIC) has developed, and with the help of the Communications Committee, distributed a survey instrument to help them in their goal of promoting, facilitating and recognizing excellence in and scholarship of teaching. As of March 15, 2000, the committee has received 40 responses (26 institutions) to the survey. The committee is currently investigating options for an electronic discussion group. Additionally, the committee is collecting topics (and titles) of teaching materials which can be shared with other Section members. Plans to distribute a list to sharing of innovative handouts, problem-solving exercises, etc. are currently in place. The Membership Committee (Chair: Shirlette Glover Milton, Texas Southern University) has been busy identifying and implementing the use of membership facilitators for each College of Pharmacy. Additionally, the committee has plans for identifying reasons why medicinal chemists are not joining the Section, formalizing a recruitment plan that will become a permanent function of the committee, developing a brochure to promote the Section, and possibly organizing a membership campaign. Additionally, Vickie Roche (Creighton University), has been working with the previous Chemistry Curriculum Survey Group. An initial draft of a publication has been submitted to the Journal.