Strategy 2
Provide an outstanding student and trainee experience
UI COM will promote a healthy COM culture that facilitates student and trainee success in a positive and respectful learning environment; promotes physical, financial, mental, and social well-being; and values diversity and inclusion.
Tactics
2a: Provide effective medical student and trainee advising program(s) and respective academic support systems that are individualized, roadmapped, equitable, and informative; that clarify roles and expectations for learners, advisers, and mentors; and that affect innovative approaches.
2b: In collaboration with the university, provide advising, academic support, and career development programs for graduate students.
2c: Ensure access to high-value education: Reduce student debt levels Manage the cost of delivering education Diversify and grow new revenue streams to defray tuition costs.
2d: Work with DEI Strategy group to action the plans to “recruit, matriculate, support, and graduate a diverse body of students who embrace UI COM’s vision and values.
2e: Build and maintain a positive learning environment that supports health and well-being for all students and trainees.
2f: Build and offer research, scholarship, and discovery opportunities, particularly for medical students who are not in research focused programs (e.g., MSTP, James Scholar).
2g: Develop a flexible and sustainable model for admissions guided by the college’s mission, vision, and values and campus-specific initiatives.
Target Completion Date: Q4 2024; Progress: 95%
Provide effective medical student and trainee advising program(s) and respective academic support systems that are individualized, roadmapped, equitable, and informative; that clarify roles and expectations for learners, advisers, and mentors; and that affect innovative approaches.
Key Activities
- Redesign advising initiatives, including: faculty advising houses, career connectors, specialty faculty liaisons and faculty advisors, webinars, small group advising sessions (Professional development of “advisors” – up to-date on advising, curriculum, effective practices – providing most relevant information to students / truly being available to students/accessible/approachable/listening – communication tools (e.g., Slack)-what credit do faculty get and does this feed add all into professional progress).
- Develop consistent college-wide procedures for academic support services and programs:
- Develop handbook(s) for staff
- Create collaborative academic support team with Learning specialists across campuses
- Encourage cooperative Peer Education Programs across campuses
- Integrate UHP, HCOE (academic programs and services) to have unified academic support system
- (Plan for 2024-25): Develop strategic partnerships with faculty
- Establish common metrics for academic support
- Usage of services
- Student outcomes
- Analysis of impact/program evaluation/identify areas for improvement
- Enhance opportunities for students through Peer Education – Achieve budget efficiencies.
- Build training modules for Peer Educators tied to external College Reading and Learning Association tutor training program Certification.
- (Ongoing, 2024-25): Educate about teaching skills, pedagogical methods, coaching techniques.
- Enhance professional development opportunities for academic support staff.
- Continue monthly PD sessions
- Implement appreciative advising framework
- Develop coaching techniques
- Create toolkit for academic support
- Establish role clarity for all student advisors.
- Develop a longitudinal college-wide plan for career support services and programs: – Develop checkpoints and milestones, year-by-year, for students to make career plans; – Develop tools and guidance for advisors and students. College-wide Career support team meeting regularly. Bring together our UME and GME representatives to build the college’s UME-GME transition to foster their collaborative discussions to refine career advising/support and establish college metrics.
- Develop and evaluate a strategic approach for helping students prepare for Step 1 that involves coordination among faculty, academic support staff, curriculum, and college-wide leadership. Integrate academic support as a wrap-around feature for new programmatic and elective course offerings, such as Block 5.5, Faculty & Learning Specialist dyadic support for students who are repeating the first year, and the Advanced Clinical Reasoning (ACR) elective course.
Target Completion Date: Q4 2024; Progress: 100%
In collaboration with the university, provide advising, academic support, and career development programs for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
Key Activities
- Ongoing 2025-26: Develop unity among graduate students from various departments via various connectivity and central support initiatives.
- Provide professional development series (culture, career as a scientist, health & wellness):
- Career Exploration – CV development, applying to postdocs/jobs, navigating authorship, publishing papers, grant writing, thesis writing, oral presentation skills
- Develop a Wellness Program (mental health, money management, time management, dealing with failure and the uncertain timelines of graduate school)
- Surveys and Pulse Checks to gauge annual progress, perceptions, and feedback (CCSE grad student subcommittee). Administrative staff and support (e.g., to maintain website and online community);
- Develop a Budget for Graduate Student Activities, events & Support, including: 3-5 events each year organized by GSAC: welcome event, social events, career events, wellness events;. Provide funding to facilitate opportunities for networking, guest speaker seminars, journal clubs, etc. between departments
- Develop and maintain graduate student website – Hub for all graduate students containing info for careers, counseling and student service options (including Dr. Lacy, links to each grad program, upcoming events).
- Hire new Assistant Dean for Graduate Education
- Administer graduate student annual fall survey.
Target Completion Date: Q2 2025; Progress: 100%
Ensure access to high-value education:Reduce student debt levels Manage the cost of delivering education Diversify and grow new revenue streams to defray tuition costs.
Key Activities
- Develop tools to help students manage expectations around cost of attending UI COM and to mitigate the potential debt burden to them, including but not limited to:
- Full transparency regarding the cost of attending our medical school calculation for in-state, out-of-state, DACA, international students and eligibility for loans (Financial Aid Office)
- Full transparency on cost to college of delivering medical education at each campus (working with Educational Affairs, Director of Administrative Operations, to share salient information with students).
- Accurately measure all expected student costs not covered by COM as part of tuition (e.g., test preparation, exam fees, uncovered site fees. Educational Affairs, Director of Administrative Operations, working with Financial Aid Office to incorporate into cost of attending medical school as an average) – and communicate early and candidly with applicants and students on why these costs cannot be part of the cost of attending calculation used by Financial Aid Office.
- Increased and proactive guidance on debt management (Financial Aid Office) and stress management related to debt
- Monitor graduate student cost of education and funding sources (e.g., stipends, grants, scholarships, student)
- Drive cost efficiencies in student affairs portion of educational cost structure: Leverage data from Educational Affairs, Director of Administrative Operations, along with student affairs knowledge and expertise, to complete an analysis of return on investment for student-experience related expenses in order to understand better where we are over-resourced and where we are under-resourced, and (Ongoing, 2023-24) provide proposals for how to more effectively shift our cost structure to be perceived as creating more value for the students.
- Work to better understand the perception and reality of the value of a COM education for medical students at each campus. Identify gaps in experience and opportunities on each campus and work to close those gaps or compensate by leveraging each campus’s specialized resources. Identified gaps in experience and opportunities
- Build consensus around, and improve, COM value proposition via enhanced marketing and communications. Build and enhance student perception of the current and future value of their educational experience beginning in admissions through graduation and beyond.
Target Completion Date: Q3 2025; Progress: 100%
Work with DEI Strategy group to action the plans to “recruit, matriculate, support, and graduate a diverse body of students who embrace UI COM’s vision and values”.
Key Activities
- Understand Diversity Council Support Committee charge and other DEI committee charges vis-à-vis broader DEI agenda
- Develop a plan for Admissions and Promotions committees to work with DEI office and DEI Strategy Committee to develop best practices in the recruitment and advancement of URM and disadvantaged students and monitor success on an annual basis based on agreed metrics
- Ensure comprehensive DEI Office action plans with respect to recruitment, messaging, training, and support (especially those being established by the DEI Strategy Committee) fully reflect the needs of the students as identified by this group based on a rigorous assessment of under-represented and disadvantaged student needs
- Continue to monitor student survey data collected by DEI.
Target Completion Date: Q4 2024; Progress: 95%
Build and maintain a positive learning environment that supports health and well-being for all students and trainees.
Key Activities
- Encourage and influence the creation of a roadmap of ideal facilities for student/trainee learning by assessing student/trainee needs and gaps (e.g., dedicated learning space for BIPOC and others with special needs, compliance with ADA, etc.) Chicago continues to address student requests for improved facilities.
- Influence the structure of health services for students to also include mental health, improved awareness, access and communication; space renovation; diversification of providers; 24/7 hotline; integration of mental health messaging in mandatory classes (ARUAC recommendations). With UIC Student Affairs, develop guides and video modules to improve health insurance literacy to access services ( e.g., behavioral health). Investigate online mental health applications at the UIC level (@ UIC Health Hub). Add online guide for physical health and well-being services (UIC Health Hub); Will examine funding models for UI COM resources to promote equity across campuses
- Establish:
- A dedicated-liaison relationship between DEI and student/learning environment;
- Dedicated-liaison campus representatives facilitating anonymous complaints of biases, mistreatments, and discrimination.
- Contribute to develop and deliver training for faculty involving learning environment issues [overlap with faculty development, but this is very specific to their interactions with students and trainees]. Invited Faculty Affairs/Faculty Development to future meeting
- Build a communications protocol for Deans Office messaging specific to students as target audience to improve internal marketing perception of transparency.
- Establish and offer services for graduate students regarding learning environment concerns and publicize services with graduate programs (all campuses).
- Implement Stepped Care model for mental health and wellbeing across campuses for all graduate and/or medical students. Wellness committees at each campus.
- Implement plan for mental health screening of students. Have plan in place, if intervention is needed. May be needed for all students; not only those struggling academically.
- Discuss with educational/curricular/student affairs Deans importance of monitoring implementation of time off for medical appointments, particularly during Phases 2 and 3
- Review, inventory, and expand student leadership opportunities
- Review and update UI COM Positive Learning Environment Policy. Submit for formal approval by CCIA and endorsements from CCSE and Grad Student Leadership. Coordinate on communications about update with Faculty Development Strategy 8.
- Constant communication and conversation with UI COM community about UI COM Positive Learning Environment Policy (inclusive of students, staff, and faculty)
Target Completion Date: TBD; Progress: 90%
Key Activities
- Develop and advocate for medical student research programming, infrastructure, and resources:
- Enhancement of current programming (funding, awards, education, cohort activities);
- MyActivities (UI academic activity reporting system) for professional development, outcomes tracking,
- student awards and recognitions,
- collaboration with library science faculty
- Encourage and influence funding sources and partnerships to support student research:
- Endowments to support student research (money toward competitive grants/direct costs & awards);
- Industry partnerships
- Partner with faculty researchers to enhance and expand research opportunities:
- More active departmental faculty liaison program;
- (modified, 11/12) create centralized research project-faculty database for students
- Establish metrics to track outcomes and evaluate progress: Repository of internal outcome measures to track participation & productivity (program applications/positions, sponsoring departments, award allocations/meeting presentations, published manuscripts)
- Hire New Director
- Increase already strong collaborations between campus student research leads
Target Completion Date: TBD; Progress: 90%
Key Activities
- Identify and execute a mission-aligned admissions framework underpinned by a process that reinforces the COM admissions goals and expectations
- Develop an approach and methodology to improve the offer-to-acceptance yield on each campus, taking into consideration the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion at each campus (with Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), strategic deployment of admissions-based scholarships (Committee on Student Scholarships and Awards, Advancement), and goals for Illinois resident-to-non-Illinois resident matriculation.
- Develop additional strategic pathway programs to address specific collegewide and campus-specific goals (e.g. populate central Illinois with UI COM-trained physicians).
- Work collaboratively with pathway programs to assure alignment of programmatic aims with COM admissions goals (with Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion)