II.B
The Criterion school shall provide an organizational setting conducive to teaching and learning, research and service. The organizational setting shall facilitate interdisciplinary communication, cooperation and collaboration and shall foster the development of professional public health values, concepts and ethics, as defined by the school.
Expected Documentation 1. An organizational chart of the school, indicating relationships of its component departments, divisions, or other units, with the administration of the school and its components. 2. Description of the relationships indicated in the diagrammatic representation. 3. Description of the manner in which interdisciplinary coordination, cooperation and collaboration is supported. 4. Definition of the professional health values, concepts and ethics to which the school is committed and a description of how these are operationalized. 5. Identification of written policies that are illustrative of the schools commitment to fair and ethical dealings. 6. Assessment of the extent to which this criterion is met.
Criterion II.B Organizational Setting Internal 1. Organizational Charts of the School
Three different organizational charts are included in this section: one for the Dean's office one for the Academic Programs, and one for the Research and Community Service Programs.
2. Description of the Organizational Relationships
The Office of the Dean
The office of the dean was reorganized during the period 1996 to 1998 to clarify communication, process and accountability. The dean has chief oversight for all aspects of the schools operations. The dean represents and advocates for the school within the university hierarchy and in the community at large. The dean is accountable to the university provost and to the schools faculty for the conduct of the schools education, research and service functions. The senior associate dean may assume any or all of the deans responsibilities as necessary. In addition, the senior associate dean is specially charged with: development and discipline of faculty, including promotion and tenure; evaluation of teaching and research; direction of graduate studies; research opportunities for students; orientation of teaching assistants; and coordination of the school reaccreditation process. Responsibility for specific aspects of the schools operations has been delegated to four associate deans, who report to the dean or the senior associate dean. The associate dean for academic affairs oversees the curriculum with respect to quality and administrative process; student academic retention; development and monitoring of distance learning courses, continuing education and joint degree programs; preparation of the faculty and advising handbooks; field practicum management and evaluation; the schools Reference Center; maintenance of the job and practicum database; and adherence to ethics code and human subjects regulations. These duties include serving as an ex officio member of the Committee on Educational Programs, the Committee on Admissions and Recruitment Policies and the Committee on Academic Progress. The associate dean for student affairs is responsible for all aspects of school operations as they relate to students from the application process through graduation. The student affairs office handles applicant inquiries and responses, disseminates application materials, oversees the admissions review process, and issues acceptances and denials. This office oversees preparation of the school catalog and student handbook and is responsible for the schools course schedule. Once students are admitted, it manages student orientation and registration, tracks students for adherence to school requirements, including processing of transfer and waiver of credit requests, and serves as administrative liaison for the Public Health Student Association. This office is responsible for student services, including financial aid, field practicum agreement processing, job announcements, and preparation of the student curriculum vitae book for interested employers. Duties of the associate dean for student affairs include serving as an ex officio member of the Committee on Admissions and Recruitment Policies and the Committee on Student Affairs.
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UIC Organizational Chart (Deans Office)
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UIC Organizational Chart (Academic Programs)
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UIC Organizational Chart (Research Services)
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The associate dean for community, government and alumni affairs is responsible for the schools general relations with the community at large. The associate dean handles recruitment and preapplication counseling of prospective students, directs the Health Careers Opportunity Program, oversees field and job placement site development for current students, and deals with outreach to the schools alumni, liaising with the Alumni Association to facilitate its activities, including the associations student mentoring program and production of its newsletter. Also included as responsibilities are ongoing relations with professional associations such as the American Public Health Association and the Illinois Public Health Association; governmental units at the city, state and federal levels; and community groups; and general advocacy and community relations on behalf of the school. The associate dean for finance and resource planning manages the schools overall budget, oversees all grants and contracts, and directs information management within the school, including creation and maintenance of databases and records systems. This individual also is responsible for oversight and directing use of the schools facilities, physical plant and resources, including space allocation, computer labs, supplies and personnel. Also included as responsibilities are management of the schools media services, maintenance of its Web page, and provision of technical services and support to other units within the school. Additionally, this office manages academic events such as the annual convocation. The director of advancement is responsible for the schools development operations. These include identification and cultivation of corporation and foundation relationships, and management of fund-raising events and campaigns to secure support for the schools scholarship and student assistance funds. The director of advancement also is responsible for certain aspects of the schools public relations, such as preparation of the school magazine. Together, the dean, senior associate dean, the four associate deans and the director of advancement form an administrative council that meets on a weekly basis to review the efficacy of the schools overall management, identify problems, and propose and implement solutions as needed. Divisions Within UIC SPH, responsibilities for various instructional areas of concentration are distributed among four divisions briefly described below. Division directors are appointed by the dean after consultation with the faculty for renewable three-year periods, and they report directly to the dean. Additional information on each division is available in the Catalog and the Student Handbook. 1. The Community Health Sciences Division (CHS) focuses on behavioral science aspects of public health needs and multidisciplinary community interventions to protect and promote health and prevent disease. CHS offers fully developed tracks in which students can major in gerontology, health promotion and education, and maternal and child health, or enter as generalists. Students also may choose to combine courses in topic areas such as developmental disabilities, international 129
health, injury prevention and control, public health nutrition, public health practice and womens health studies. 2. The Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Division (EOHS) aims to prepare students with the requisite scientific and public health background to help protect the environment and improve the health of workers and the general public. Within the broad rubric of understanding human exposures and environmental health, the division offers advanced studies in the following disciplines: air pollution, water pollution, solid and hazardous waste, radiation health, environmental chemistry, industrial hygiene, occupational medicine, toxicology, environmental epidemiology and risk assessment. In addition to the general environmental health curriculum, the division supports the graduate program for physicians in an accredited occupational medicine residency and has an accredited curriculum in industrial hygiene. 3. Epidemiology and Biostatistics Division (E&B): Epidemiology studies the distribution and determinants of diseases and other health-related events in populations. Biostatistics develops and applies statistical methods both to describe and draw inferences about particular problems in public health. As a result of the very close relationship between the fields of epidemiology and biostatistics, these two disciplines are housed within the same division, although the teaching programs are administered separately. 4. The Health Policy and Administration Division (HPA) focuses on the skillful use of resources, processes, personnel policies and laws to implement solutions to public health and health services problems. An interdisciplinary approach is utilized for studying and understanding the behavior of individuals, organizations, institutions and the public health regulatory system in order to develop effective practices that will lead to optimal outcomes. Conceptually, HPA and E&B focus on some of the methods that are applied to the community health and environmental-occupational emphases of the other two divisions. Centers The Great Lakes Center for Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health is a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary teaching, research and service center. The center includes graduate programs in occupational and environmental medicine, industrial hygiene, occupational health nursing and hazardous materials. The center offers continuing education to professionals in occupational safety and health, hazardous materials, agricultural safety and health, and worker and professional training in asbestos, radon and lead. The center manages the University of Illinois Health Service and supports an Occupational Health Service Institute that operates a medical advisorship program, occupational and environmental medicine clinics at UIC and Cook County Hospital, and a Health Hazard Evaluation program. The center also supports an active international program, is home to a Fogarty International Center for Environmental Health, and is a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health. The centers director, appointed by the dean for a discretionary period, reports directly to the dean.
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In 1997, several separate centers were consolidated under a new entity, the Health Research and Policy Centers (HRPCs). The purpose of HRPCs is to conduct and foster the development of research on health behaviors, health promotion, disease prevention, health services/outcomes and health policy, and promote the interaction of investigators and projects in these areas. The HRPCs director, appointed by the dean for a discretionary period, reports directly to the dean. The subcenters directors are appointed by the HRPCs director for a discretionary period and report directly to him/her. These centers include: 1. The Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research Center directs projects concerned with translation of research into practice, including research on the real-world effectiveness and dissemination of health promotion and disease prevention interventions. It is one of 14 CDC-funded Prevention Research Centers. 2. The Center for Health Behavior Research conducts research to understand the etiology of and progression and change in health-compromising behaviors and to develop and test behavioral interventions to reduce or prevent such behaviors. 3. The Center for Health Services Research conducts research on availability of, access to, and utilization and effectiveness (outcomes) of health care services to identify best practices. 4. The Center for Research on Health and Aging focuses on understanding the health of the aging, the influences on it, and ways of promoting healthy aging. 5. The Health Policy Center addresses research on health policies and the development and communication of public health policy information to policymakers and the public. 6. The Research Methodology Core provides both quantitative and qualitative methodological expertise to the component centers. Programs Air Pollution Training Institute The Environmental Protection Agency operates a network of centers and institutes at universities throughout the U.S. that provide professional training experiences for air pollution control professionals. The Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Division has operated one of these centers/institutes for eight years. The purpose of the institute is to assist state and local air pollution control agencies in the acquisition of professional level skills needed for effective conduct of air pollution abatement programs. The program is carried out using one of three types of training: conventional academic training, intensive short course instruction, and special seminars and short courses on the USEPAs Distance Learning Network. Conventional academic training offers instruction in air pollution control science and related subjects as required for professional 131
training of air pollution abatement practitioners. Academic training supports students in academic programs leading to the Master of Public Health (MPH) and Master of Science (MS) in Public Health degrees. Short courses and distance learning seminars are scheduled throughout the year. Chicago Project for Violence Prevention The Chicago Project for Violence Prevention is a cooperative public health initiative among the city of Chicago and three federal agencies, housed and staffed within the School of Public Health, which has as its goal the development of a citywide, accelerated, effort long-term to reduce violence in Chicago over the next 10 to 15 years. The Chicago Project partners with community-based organizations that take the lead in developing comprehensive strategic plans to reduce violence in their neighborhoods. Funding for this project comes from a broad coalition of groups vested in violence prevention, namely, the Archdiocese of Chicago, the MacArthur Foundation, the US Office of Juvenile Justice, the Michael Reese Foundation and the LaSalle Adams Fund. Community Asthma Prevention Program This multidisciplinary program has been funded to be two of the three US sites participating in the landmark International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood funded by ISAAC. The research focus consists of delineating several environmental risk factors for asthma that are potentially amenable to intervention. The program has onsite capabilities for analyzing a wide variety of pollutant and bioaerosol measurements, which have greatly enhanced the ability to examine the causal pathway by which environmental factors affect the development of asthma, as well as the effectiveness of the groups intervention strategies. The program has developed a community-based peer educator program aimed at decreasing risk factors for asthma in children from the inner city. Funding for this program comes from the Chicago Public Schools, EPA, NIEHS, and the Otho Sprague Foundation. Community Outreach Intervention Projects UIC's Community Outreach Intervention Projects (COIP) conduct focused research on AIDS intervention targeting injecting drug users. Since 1986, the project has been providing community-level AIDS prevention education to injecting drug users and their sexual and drug-using partners in the Chicago metropolitan area. Street outreach is conducted by trained field staff who are themselves members of the population targeted for intervention. Outreach workers offer educational literature and prevention materials, provide HIV testing and counseling, and help clients access a host of services, including drug treatment, medical care, and other necessary social services. These projects are funded by NIH, AMFAR, the Chicago Department of Health, the Illinois Department of Public Health, and CDC.
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Maternal and Child Community Health Science Consortium The Maternal and Child Community Health Science Consortium (MC2HSC) promotes community-university collaboration to address the research and information needs of the maternal and child health community within the Chicago metropolitan area. Areas of research focus include: access to care; prevention efforts which address major causes of morbidity and mortality for families and children; studies involving health education and training efforts; and consortium building. Priority is given to community-initiated projects, and emphasis is placed on the community's perspective of the issues being studied. Funding is provided by the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Maternal and Child Health Training Program The goal of this program is to provide leadership training for individuals pursuing careers in maternal and child health (MCH) aspects of community practice, research, teaching, program planning and evaluation, administration , policymaking, and advocacy. This is a comprehensive, competency-based program focusing on the health needs of women, children, and families, and on the services designed to meet these needs. This program is one of only 13 such training programs funded in the U.S. through the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau and adheres to the competencies developed by the Association of Teachers of Maternal and Child Health and approved by the MCH Council of the Association of Schools of Public Health and the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs. Public Health Practice Center The mission of the Public Health Practice Center is to improve both the education and practice of public health by increasing linkages and interactions between the school's educational, research and service activities and the professionals and organizations engaged in public health practice. This is accomplished through leadership development for public health practitioners through the Illinois Public Health Leadership Institute, research into capacity building within the public health system and into development of public health practice activities within the academic sector, and development and presentation of practice-relevant courses. This center is funded by monies from CDC and the Illinois Department of Public Health.
3. Support of Interdisciplinary Coordination, Cooperation and Collaboration
The school uses both structural methods and faculty recognition (e.g., appropriate credit for the intellectual effort on interdisciplinary grants) to further coordination, cooperation and collaboration among faculty and divisions within the school; with other units within the university; and with agencies, organizations, and institutions in the communities beyond the university. 133
Collaboration on joint research projects is encouraged through measures the University of Illinois has instituted to maximize recognition accorded interdisciplinary efforts. Agreements achieved by principal and co-principal investigators are supported by faculty members home units, and faculty members demonstrated ability to undertake collaborative endeavors is a consideration in promotion and tenure review. With respect to finances derived from sponsored projects, the universitys proposal approval form, a mandatory document for all applications for outside funding, requires allocation of percentages of indirect cost recovery based on respective units work commitments made at the outset of each project. The divisions of the school provide the working framework for the teaching, research and service endeavors while the centers and programs focus on research and efforts at integrating research and service. The Health Research and Policy Centers (HRPCs), described in response to Criterion II.B.2, are the schools largest aggregation of centers and were established as a campus-wide initiative by the university administration to advance the development of health promotion, health policy and health services research in Illinois. Together, the centers form a comprehensive research-to-application-to-policy structure that focuses and supports improvements in the conception and delivery of health services. The HRPCs have the infrastructure in terms of technology and staffing to make crossdisciplinary research and service projects highly attractive to collaborators from the schools divisions and other units on campus. Involvement of outside organizations is facilitated by the facultys long history of community commitment. The schools other center, the Great Lakes Center for Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health (GLC), and its programs target specific subject areas but operate similarly to the HRPCs in that they involve participation of faculty from across the divisions and from other university units in research and service projects that often include community involvement. The GLC, in addition to conducting environmental and occupational research, provides services to workers, companies and communities through subunits such as the Occupational Health Service Institute and the Health Hazard Evaluation Program. The Maternal and Child Community Health Science Consortium promotes communityuniversity collaboration to address the research and information needs of the maternal and child health community within the Chicago metropolitan area and gives priority to community-initiated projects. The Public Health Practice Center conducts ongoing studies to develop and measure the performance of the public health system, while promoting development of leadership skills among public health practitioners from Illinois and adjacent states through the centers Illinois Public Health Leadership Institute. The university also facilitates joint appointments in different units as a means of fostering faculty involvement in cross-disciplinary efforts. Twenty faculty have such appointments. Units where these joint appointments reside include: College of Medicine, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, and College of Health and Human Development Sciences. While joint appointments within the school would help in these cross-disciplinary efforts, the school is considered to be one 134
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