1. Peter Williams announced to the committee that Dr. Robert Barraco is in the hospital in Lehigh, PA. He has had several operations, but is responding to the medicine they are giving him.
2. Peter Williams announced to the committee on January 24, 2004 there will be a workshop on "New Technology for our Classes." The workshop will be four hours long and will include power point training, simulation dummies, and the newly purchased virtual microscope.
   

1. Directors of Didactic Courses                                   R. Steigbigel
   The minutes from the October meeting have been distributed by email. Roy Steigbigel announced that the calendars for Cbase and iPlanet will be combined into one calendar thanks to the help of Moises Eisenberg. Dr. Steigbigel informed the committee that students are not attending lectures. This subject will be discussed at the January Curriculum Committee meeting and the student reps were asked to prepare a report on student views and attitudes regarding attendance. Dr. Steigbigel reported that Margaret McNurlan had proposed a new schedule for the first year exams that had been discussed and approved by the group. Finally, Dr. McNurlan and Dr. Morrison have been asked to analyze the first and second year courses to enhance coordination and eliminate repetition.
2. Directors of Clinical Courses                                     J. Sorrento
   The minutes from the November meeting have been distributed by email. There was no additional report.
3. Innovation Group                                                       P. Williams
   No report.
4. Evaluation Subcommittee                                           A. Jaffe
   The evaluation of courses will continue with the February 2, 2004 meeting. Letters from Dean Edelman have been mailed to the Directors and Evaluators informing them when they have been asked to review a course for the 2003-2004 academic year. The previous reviews of the courses will be mailed to the appropriate parties with a three month time period to have sufficient time to work on their review of the course which they have been chosen to evaluate. The Clinical Days are to be evaluated for the students by Dr. Schiavone and the faculty by Arnold Jaffe.
5. Teaching & Learning Strategies                                  A. Wackett
   No report.
6. Information Technology                                              P. Viccellio
   No report.

Committee Accepted Minutes

Committee Accepted Minutes

Committee Accepted Report

1. Surgical Subspecialty Objectives updated by Peter Ells and Chip Merriam
   No report.
2. Pathology exam schedule was distributed by Margaret McNurlan at the Curriculum Committee meeting. This is a proposal for changing the amount and order of exams for the first year medical students. Previously, no feedback was given to the students on how they were performing in Pathology until May when they would have their first exam for the course that started in February.
   

1. Surgical Subspecialty proposal by Chip Merriam
   No report.
2. A proposed first year exam schedule was introduced by Margaret McNurlan. (attached) The new schedule is modeled after the exam schedule that is used at Syracuse University. Stony Brook's schedule would have the exams on Monday which would allow the students to study over the weekend. Some were concerned with having four or five exams in one day. One of the student representatives felt that the integration of courses should be accomplished before worrying about the exams. Another student emailed the class of 2006 to poll them and reported that there was great concern amongst the students that they would not have sufficient time to learn all of the required material to successfully do well on multiple exams in one day.

• Tentative approval of Margaret McNurlans' schedule. The student reps will be invited to speak at the January meeting about the first year schedule. This new schedule would be for the next incoming class. A decision must be made soon to inform the new class our changes.
• In response to a suggestion from John Chaves, a subcommittee should examine our goals and objectives in student evaluation.
• To lessen the anxiety that the new exam schedule might cause, there should be a limit on the weight exams could have in calculating grades and that other modes of evaluation - discussion, OSCEs, written work, lab work, etc. - should be used as well. Williams propose a 70-30 split.

MOTION: Adoption of Dr. McNurlan's exam schedule for 2004-5. PASSED 6-5

The evaluation subcommittee was charged to review and develop a set of objectives for student evaluation.
The issue of the weight to be given to exams in calculating grades was tabled.