BSGP - Final APR Action Plan.pdf

Program: Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program 

Date of Visit: March 19-21, 2007 

# 

Recommendations: Action Taken/Status 

The Students: 

1 Establish a budget (in advance) for Student 

Research Day activities to facilitate the 

organizational efforts of students. 

2 Develop a more comprehensive integration of 

MD/PhD students into the BSGP throughout 

their entire training. This will require careful 

consideration of clinical training activities 

during research-intensive intervals, as well as of 

research-related efforts during clinical education 

and training. 

3 Establish a program-based advisory process for 

students, i.e., identify and assign an advisor to 

each student to provide oversight that begins 

with student matriculation and continues 

throughout student tenure in the program. An 

advisor need not necessarily align with the area 

of research interest of a given student, but 

advisors must be available to advisees, aware of 

BSGP programmatic rules and policies, and 

willing to interface with the BSGP Steering 

Committee on behalf of the students. Sharing of 

successful mentoring plans from various 

ACADEMIC PROGRAM REVIEW ACTION PLAN 

A budget of $2,000 will be set-aside for Graduate 

Student Research Day annually. This allocation does 

not include costs for the invited speaker, which will 

continue to be covered separately through support 

from the Cell and Molecular Basis of Disease Seminar 

Series, as was the case last year. 

The MD/PhD program director, Dr. Fernando 

Valenzuela, together with the MD/PhD students has 

developed a plan for a new Journal Club with a focus 

on Clinical Translational Research that will be open to 

all interested graduate and medical students. The goal 

being to promote intermixing and multi-disciplinary 

discussion around disease oriented clinical research 

problems. A new T32 Training Program that will 

include a Certificate and Masters of Science in 

Clinical Research, to be part of an Integrated Clinical 

Translational Science Center, will involve MD, 

MD/PhD and PhD students thereby also increasing 

integration of learners from different programs. 

Beginning in Spring 2008, First Year students will be 

paired with faculty advisors. Faculty advisors will be 

required to complete a training workshop and be given 

a notebook that provides an overview of the graduate 

program requirements, important mileposts, etc. 

Faculty advisors and their students will be required to 

meet twice during each semester until the COS is 

formed. 

Individual(s) 

Responsible 

Dr. Angela 

Wandinger- 

Ness and 

Ignacio Ortiz 

Dr. Fernando 

Valenzuela 

Dr. Angela 

Wandinger- 

Ness, Steering 

Committee 

and Ignacio 

Ortiz 

Target 

Completion 

Date 

Student 

Research Day 

is held 

annually in 

February each 

year 

Begin in 

Spring 2008 

Advisors to be 

assigned 

Spring 2008 

for current first 

year students 

and in Fall for 

all new 

incoming 

classes 

thereafter. 

Additional 

Comments 

BSGP Action Plan in Response to APR – Meeting with BSGP and Provost’s Office to be held Tuesday, September 18, 2007 in Scholes Hall 246, 9:30-11:30am 1

departmentally-based efforts could facilitate a 

thoughtful programmatic solution. 

4 Establish a long-range plan for defining the 

optimum size and expansion of the program 

commensurate with faculty size and funded 

research programs. This planning will require 

careful consideration of important fiscal 

constraints associated with student recruitment 

and 1 st year stipend support, as well as 

mechanisms to sustain matriculated students if 

research funding is lost 

The Curriculum 

1 A process for the regular review/revision of the 

entire BSGP curriculum is essential. The 

external reviewers suggest establishment of a 

Curriculum Subcommittee consisting of 

members from the 6 academic BSGP research 

divisions and the extramural partners (LRRI and 

LANL). This subcommittee should be charged 

with performing regular reviews of the core 

courses and selectives to ensure that these 

offerings are meeting the needs of BSGP 

students. In this process, involvement and/or 

input of students from each of the BSGP 

research divisions is critical. Recommendations 

from the Subcommittee would then provide a 

basis for further consideration by the BSGP 

Steering Committee. 

2 The manner in which the qualifying and 

comprehensive exams are administered should 

be carefully reviewed to ensure that all 

committees incorporate rigor in both 

examinations. Steps should be taken to ensure 

that the format of the comprehensive 

The SOM engaged in a strategic planning process 

approximately 4 years ago in which it was decided 

that the focus of the BSGP should be on recruitment 

and improving the quality of our students (currently, 

14-20 new PhD students per year). Additional funds 

were committed to recruitment and enhancing BSGP 

staff. At that time, it was agreed that the class size 

should be examined in a second phase. As a result, 

we will engage in a process in 2008 that will give 

careful consideration to appropriately sizing the BSGP 

class in relation to the research enterprise. This 

process will be started by an ad hoc committee 

established by the Sr. Associate Dean for Research in 

consultation with the Assistant Dean for Graduate 

Studies. After feedback from our Research Strategic 

Planning Committee, the plan will be presented to the 

Dean of the SOM for consideration. 

A faculty subcommittee consisting of BSGP Steering 

Committee members, BSGP course directors and the 

Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies has been 

established to address two issues: a) establish a 

process for regular curriculum review and 

incorporation of new courses; b) identify the key 

curricular needs. The directors of a MS in Clinical 

Research and of an interdisciplinary, NSF-funded 

IGERT program have also been asked to provide 

input. Student input will be solicited through small 

focus groups. 

The qualifying exam has been carefully reviewed. 

Revised guidelines for student evaluation were 

implemented with the May 2007 exam and positively 

received by examiners and students. The exam 

process and guidelines have been clearly articulated in 

written form and together with the evaluation form are 

Drs. Larson 

and 

Wandinger- 

Ness 

Drs. 

Hathaway, 

Ness, 

Partridge, 

Oliver, 

Wandinger- 

Ness, BSGSS 

appointees 

Qualifying 

Exam Chair 

(TBA) and 

Program 

Director 

(AWN) 

Negotiations 

for 

departmental 

scholars for the 

following Fall 

term should 

begin in 

January and 

MOUs should 

be in place by 

January 31 

each year. 

Completed Bi- 

Annually, first 

review/revision 

to be 

completed by 

Spring 2008 

Complete 

(with the 

exception of 

identifying a 

Qualifying 

Exam Chair) 


examination is consistent among all students posted on the web. The Assistant Dean for Graduate 

Studies and the Qualifying Exam Chair will continue 

to provide a prep session two-three weeks in advance 

of both the January and May exam periods. The 

comprehensive exam guidelines are posted on the 

webpage and the program office will ensure that 

examiners and students are apprised of the exam 

timelines and requirements. A plan for formalized 

training of all mentors will also help ensure greater 

3 A multidisciplinary course on the Responsible 

Conduct of Research should be provided on an 

annual basis and be required for every BSGP 

student. In this course, the participation of 

representative faculty from each of the research 

divisions would be extremely beneficial. 

4 Students should receive information and engage 

in discussions about alternative careers in 

science 

uniformity. 

Drs. Hjelle and Wandinger-Ness have taught an 

existing course on Responsible Conduct in Research 

since 2000 on a biannual basis. Discussions are in 

progress among Dept. Chairs to identify additional 

faculty who could participate in the teaching of this 

course every semester to allow more students to be 

served. Our current practice within the SOM is to 

charge the department that directs the course with 

leading the effort to assign directorship and find 

faculty. The pool of faculty to be asked to participate 

in teaching the course includes current training grant 

directors and mentors with training grant supported 

students. This positions the BSGP to require ethics 

training of all students beginning Fall 2008. 

Biomedical Graduate Student Society has taken the 

lead in inviting speakers (3-4/year) to discuss various 

career tracks at an annual retreat held in September 

each year. Speakers in the past three years have 

covered careers in science writing, as administrators 

in private science foundations, in pharmaceutical 

industry, among others. The retreat is open to all 

graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. 

In addition, a new monthly series on career 

development and career options will be developed 

and integrated with similar efforts in the Clinical 

Translational Science Center (CTSC) and College of 

Pharmacy (COP). A faculty leader for this initiative 

needs to be identified. 

Drs. Brian 

Hjelle and 

Mary 

Lipscomb 

BSGSS and 

faculty leader 

TBA 

reviewed again 

Bi-Annually 

Scheduled for 

Fall 2007 and 

will be offered 

each semester. 

Retreat 

scheduled for 

September 14, 

2007 at the 

Hispanic 

Cultural Center 

Dr. Bill Gannon 

has agreed to be 

the course 

director this 

semester as a 7 

week, 1 credit 

hour course. Dr. 

Mary Lipscomb 

is interested in 

being Course 

Director in the 

future. 


The Faculty 

1 The Program Director needs to ensure that 

faculty are better informed about program 

requirements, particularly those concerning the 

comprehensive exam. This could take the form 

of scheduled sessions in departmental faculty 

meetings, though there could be many 

alternative strategies. 

2 The School of Medicine and/or the OGS needs 

to better monitor and credit faculty effort in 

graduate education, similar to that which is 

apparently already in place for crediting faculty 

effort in medical professional education. The 

departmental and school administration need to 

recognize the value of faculty efforts in both 

formal lecture hours and less formal, but equally 

important, individual mentoring of graduate 

students. The School should recognize that 

faculty efforts in graduate education are of 

comparable value to that of medical education 

for a Tier 1 research institution. 

A faculty training workshop has been developed and 

was first offered in Fall 2006. Several workshops will 

be run in September and October 2007. Faculty 

attending the workshop receive a handbook that 

includes information about program requirements, 

mileposts, etc. and mirrors information given to all 

entering students. In addition, all student handbook 

information is regularly updated and posted on the 

BSGP webpage. Senior Associate Dean for Research, 

Dr. Richard Larson, at the direction of Dr. Paul Roth, 

Dean of SOM, will require all prospective mentors to 

complete the training workshop. Mandatory training 

may also be tied to requests for approval as graduate 

training faculty (by the BSGP and OGS), renewable 

every 5 years. 

An Ad-Hoc Committee with representation from each 

department involved in graduate education within the 

School of Medicine has been formed to address this 

issue. The committee has met and established a rough 

guideline of what activities need to be captured, how 

they should be valued across departments, and how 

they will be reported within the BSGP structure and in 

the Faculty Activity Database (FAD) with SOM 

Administration. Based on the committee’s proposals 

to Dr. Larson and the Department Chairs, SOM has 

adopted a mechanism whereby the BSGP staff will 

track faculty effort and report in accordance with the 

FAD timelines (6 month increments). This will be 

reviewed during the mid-year budget review and 

treated equally to all other SOM education activities. 

The committee will continue to meet and revise the 

proposal of this tracking mechanism and align the 

collection, valuation and reporting as closely as 

possible with professional medical education tracking 

and reporting. The committee's proposals will 

be shared with the chairs of each department for input 

and approval. The goal is to bring equal recognition 

and distribution of faculty effort in clinical and 

graduate research education and training. 

Ignacio Ortiz; 

Plan for 

required 

faculty mentor 

training 

discussed with 

Chairs and 

BSGP steering 

committee 

Drs. Larson, 

Wandinger- 

Ness, Griffith 

and Ignacio 

Ortiz 

Training will 

be offered in 

Mid September 

and Early 

October 

Initialized July 

2007 

A training will 

also be offered 

off-site at LRRI 

for the mentors 

at that research 

facility. 


The Facilities 

1 One of the clearest examples this issue is in the 

Brain and Behavioral Illness program, in which 

the Department of Neurosciences is a very 

central player. Establishing an interdisciplinary 

research center in this area should be carefully 

considered, one that coordinates research, grant 

administration, and training efforts with the 

Main Campus, MIND Institute, the labs, and 

other entities. Although funds appear to be 

earmarked for construction of a new facility 

adjacent to MIND Institute that would house 

translational neuroscience research from the 

Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry, it is 

unclear as to whether this new facility would 

directly support the more basic neuroscience 

research components critical to the BSGP 

The Administration 

1 The extensive administrative activities of the 

Program Director suggest that 50% time 

commitment would be more appropriate 

2 The BSGP strategic plan suggested that one 

position of Program Coordinator be changed 

from exempt (hourly) to non-exempt status. 

Given the need to coordinate diverse activities 

outside the regular workday (i.e., recruitment), 

this would seem to be a good idea 

This comment appears to be related to encouraging 

multi-disciplinary research and research education. A 

number of funded research centers and extramural 

partnerships provide students with access to state of 

the art resources, e.g. Cancer Center microscopy, 

proteomics, flow and genomics facilities, COP animal 

imaging resources, LRRI environmental testing 

resources, Electron Microscopy and imaging facilities 

in the SOM, among others. Most of these facilities 

have technical support staff to train faculty, staff and 

students. One of our other strategic focuses is multidisciplinary 

research, particularly with focus on 

partnering with Clinical and Translational initiatives. 

The Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) 

will be instrumental in providing additional 

multidisciplinary training opportunities with its T32 

and other educational programs. In addition, we have 

a number of established multi-disciplinary training 

initiatives such as the NSMS and INCBN IGERTs and 

other pipeline programs. 

With the addition of the CTSC Education Program, 

we will increase the % effort support for the Assistant 

Dean for Graduate Studies. In addition we will be 

changing the name to the Assistant Dean for Research 

Education and it will be advertised at .25- 0.5 FTE. If 

less than 0.5 FTE is committed by the successful 

applicant, a program director (faculty) position will 

also be added. 

The senior leadership considered this 

recommendation, but expects to keep the PC, grade 10 

position as an exempt position to allow the individuals 

in this role to earn overtime. Changing to non-exempt 

status would not substantially increase pay for this 

position, but would prevent OT from being accrued 

Drs. Richard 

Larson, 

Deborah 

Helitzer, 

Angela 

Wandinger- 

Ness, 

Fernando 

Valenzuela, 

Craig Marcus, 

Paula Meek, 

Janet Oliver, 

Jean Clare 

Seagrave 

Drs. Larson 

and Roth 

Drs. Richard 

Larson and 

Angela 

Wandinger- 

Ness 

BSGP Action Plan in Response to APR – Meeting with BSGP and Provost’s Office to be held Tuesday, September 18, 2007 in Scholes Hall 246, 9:30-11:30am 5 

N/A 

N/A

3 Centralized data tracking is an issue that 

emerged in several discussions. Tracking of 

current BSGP students as well as program 

graduates would significantly aid in the 

development of competitive training grants 

4 The BSGP Steering Committee (SC) could be 

better utilized. Based on input to the review 

committee, two recommendations seem 

warranted. This group should continue to work 

on developing a sense of program identity (in 

addition to departmental identity) for BSGP 

students. Second, they might profitably direct 

more attention to regular program evaluation, 

data tracking of individual students, and 

utilizing more formal reviews of teaching 

effectiveness and course coverage. Greater use 

of subcommittees might be an effective 

mechanism towards achieving these goals (e.g., 

Recruitment Subcommittee, Admissions 

Subcommittee, and Curriculum Subcommittee). 

5 Based on input from several sources, greater 

budgetary autonomy and authority for the 

Program Director would be helpful. 

Current student tracking is done using an Access 

Database managed by the BSGP administrative team. 

A faculty subcommittee has been established to 

review all student progress on an annual basis and 

issue letters of progress to both students and mentors. 

We will also explore long-term graduate tracking 

through existing assessment and outcomes tracking 

programs for medical students 

We will be examining the possibility of an expanded 

role of the BSGP SC in curriculum changes, faculty 

directorships and other areas. The Medical School 

Steering Committee is a potential model. 

The BSGP steering committee unilaterally rejected the 

recommendation to have an admissions subcommittee. 

However, subcommittees are regularly used to address 

specific needs such as the development of a strategic 

plan, administration of the qualifying exam, 

curriculum revision, etc. 

The BSGP program is a unit within the Office of 

Research. The Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies 

reports to the Senior Associate Dean for Research 

who oversees the Office of Research. This has served 

many advantages to the BSGP program over the 

years, as pointed out by the reviewers. The budget for 

the BSGP is established each year with requests being 

made to the Dean and a budget established. During the 

budget process, the budget is directly allocated to the 

BSGP, its staff, expenses, travel and other costs. 

Purchases and direct expenditures are made directly 

by the program manager with approval from the 

Program Director (Asst. Dean for Graduate Studies). 

The Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies will review 

the budget on a quarterly basis with the Senior 

Associate Dean to make sure that over-expenditures 

do not occur. There is the opportunity to receive 

Faculty 

Subcommittee 

and BSGP 

Staff 

Faculty 

Steering 

Committee 

Drs. Roth, 

Larson, 

Valenzuela 

and 

Wandinger- 

Ness, Cindy 

Brindley and 

Ignacio Ortiz 

Annually, 2007 

already 

complete 

N/A 

Quarterly 

Letters were sent 

out to each 

BSGP student 

commending 

those that were 

up-to-date and 

on track, and 

informing those 

that were not of 

what they were 

lacking. 


6 Regarding tuition return, greater transparency in 

the process would be highly desirable. At the 

very least, this might help to alleviate a rather 

widespread perception of “unfairness”. If more 

tuition funds could flow to the program, it could 

be very effectively utilized to increase the 

number of stipends offered to first-year students, 

a critical need identified by faculty. The precise 

details of how tuition is handled should be 

explored and widely disseminated to faculty. 

additional funds during the budgeting process, if 

needed and justification exists. Regular budget reports 

have been lacking in part due to the grave illness and 

death of our previous accountant, Ms. Valerie Burge. 

The new Office of Research Accountant is in place 

and regular reports will become available on at least a 

quarterly basis. 

There is an underlying need to achieve authority and 

stability of education programs, and we achieve these 

goals by means other than dedicated line items. 

Programs such as the BSGP have not historically been 

supported by tuition reimbursement. The BSGP 

program and first-year students have been directly 

supported by funds from the SOM. In fact, this 

support has been given for twenty years without the 

receipt of tuition reimbursement. If tuition 

reimbursement was received, it could offset this 

commitment that has been made, and will continue to 

be made by the SOM. The Dean’s commitment to the 

BSGP has grown each year. In addition, a new 

MD/PhD program was completely funded with SOM 

funds. The UNM Health Sciences Center does not 

receive academic credit (non M.D.) student tuition 

directly. These tuition revenues are deposited into a 

Main Campus pooled Instruction and General revenue 

account. These revenues are utilized to support both 

instruction and instructional support services provided 

by Main Campus. These services include, but are not 

limited to, Registrar’s Office, Admissions Office, 

Bursar’s Office and the libraries. We would like to 

engage in a process with the Provost’s Office to 

understand the amount of tuition reimbursement 

received by the University related to the BSGP and its 

allocation to support educational endeavors. 

BSGP Action Plan in Response to APR – Meeting with BSGP and Provost’s Office to be held Tuesday, September 18, 2007 in Scholes Hall 246, 9:30-11:30am 7 

TBA

Current Operational Issues related to Main Campus logistics (Not Part of APR Recommendations) 

1 A stated weakness, but not an explicit 

recommendation related to program office 

space: “There also appears to be a need for more 

and better designed office facilities. Ideally, 

appropriate space for confidential advising, as 

well as a student gathering area, should be 

provided.” 

2 Program Approval/Curriculum Change and 

Update processes and related interactions with 

Main Campus are often difficult and 

cumbersome. A more efficient process for 

approving BSGP and other HSC educational 

programmatic initiatives and modifications 

needs to be established. 

3 NIH has very strict guidelines for the payment 

of pre- and post-Doctoral trainees that work 

under T32 Training Grants. These guidelines 

prevent pre- and post-docs from being 

recognized and/or paid by their institution as 

employees. This has caused major issues for the 

individuals involved, in terms of their living 

expense support (stipends), health insurance and 

other benefits. The current T32 Pre and Post- 

Doctoral trainees are being paid though DPEZs 

in Accounts Payable. This presents unique 

issues as it requires hours of staff time each 

month to prepare, and follow-up with each 

individuals payments. Currently, UNM has no 

way of formally recognizing these pre- and post- 

docs as trainees (in the HR system, Banner 

systems, etc). A formal recognition category 

needs to be established to ensure compliance 

with NIH guidelines and UNM policies and 

procedures for pre- and post-Doctoral trainees. ` 

A plan for accommodating the BSGP 

administrative team in more optimal office space 

to allow private meetings with students, is in 

process. The BSGP team would be housed in 

shared space with the administrative team leading 

the CTSC Education programs as well. 

Dr. Trotter is anticipating being engaged with Jackie 

Hood, who is head of Faculty Senate, to develop an 

organizational plan. We have every reason to believe 

that this will lead to more efficient approval process 

for the HSC. 

We will be meeting with HR, Payroll and other 

relevant parties in order to resolve this issue. Support 

for solving this issue from the Provost’s Office is 

requested. 

Drs. Larson, 

Wandinger- 

Ness and 

Ignacio Ortiz 

Dr. Trotter 

Dr. 

Wandinger- 

Ness and 

Ignacio Ortiz 

January 2008

BSGP - Final APR Action Plan.pdf

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