CURRICULUM COMMITTEE MEETING – March 11, 2025

Attendance

Voting Members: Heather Harrell (Chair), Anita Rajasekhar, Christopher Robinson, Daniel Lewis, Jason Fromm, Jennifer Fieber, Melanie Hagen, Norman Beatty, Reetu Grewal, Robert Seifert, Ryan Nall, Velyn Wu.
Ex-Officio: Ashleigh Wright, Austin Edwards (MS2), Beverly Dede, Carrie Adams, Chris Giordano, Collen Kalynych, Diane Howell, Elisa Sottile, Elizabeth DeVos, Hannah Norton, Jennifer Hamilton, Jim Gorske, Kathy Green, Lynne Meyer, Marquia Walker, Maureen Novak, Melissa Turley, Meredith Thompson, Phuong Huynh, Shelley Collins, Shireen Madani. Guests: Christiana Shaw, MD
Recording: Sandi Reveille

Dr. Harrell called the meeting to order at 7:34am.

1. A motion was made to approve the consent agenda, seconded, and approved.

  1. Vote required
    • Primary Care Sports Medicine Jax
      Provide students in their 3rd or 4th year who might see a career in sports medicine through primary care. Will be offered as a 2-week or 4-week elective time.
      – Objectives reviewed
      Motion to approve this elective.
      Motion was seconded and approved.

    • Surgery Clerkship Syllabus
      Approve the updated learning objectives and the revision to the grading components.
      Motion to approve changes and updates including policy chart in the table of policies related to the mistreatment policy.
      Motion was seconded and approved.
    • Attendance policy for required educational activities
      Presented the attendance policy where the students on Clerkship will complete a form on-line which will go directly to the clerkship administrators to review and disseminate whether the attendance would be excused or unexcused.
      Motion to approve the update of the policies around the attendance process.
      Motion was seconded and approved.

    • Discovery Pathway proposal
      There was a discussion around a proposal to define requirements of a discovery track and to limit the number of tracks to 10 with clear outcomes that align across tracks. Overall members were positive about the proposal but not ready to vote as it was unclear how well the current system was leading to scholarly outcomes and certificates. We will invite Dr. Sattari back to the next meeting to provide further details.
    • Removal of minus grades
      Presented the pros and cons of removing the minus grades in clerkships. Review of last 2 years data showed minus grades overalled lowered student GPAs. Class rank was affected in both directions. Main rationale to remove minus grades is to widen the discrimination cutoffs between grades as currently very narrow and can give outsized effect to small parts of a student’s experience. Discussed returning to the previousy recommended grade distribution of ~ 35% A, ~45% B+, and ~20%B and lower. Would like to run by clerkship directors before voting on distribution guideline.
      Motion to remove minus grades on the clerkship beginning with Class of 2027.
      Motion was seconded and approved. 
  1. EQIA
    No updates other than LCME news
  1. SADEA/LCME Update
    Announced that we were satisfactory on all LCME standards that required a response. Some items require monitoring.
  1. Good News
    Provide good news events for College of Medicine faculty, residents, students