Academic Resources Subcommittee (ARSC)

1: General

The following Bylaws govern the organization and procedures of the Academic Resources Subcommittee (ARC) and its related subcommittees at St. George’s University School of Medicine. The ARC is a faculty subcommittee responsible for evaluating the educational resources needs of the basic sciences and clinical education aligned with the outcome objectives of the SOM.

2: Authority

The ARSC is a delegated authority by the dean of the SGU SOM and has accountability for oversight of a list of activities as outlined in the Charges section.  Additional subcommittees may be formed to address specific aspects of integration.

3: Reporting 

 This subcommittee reports to and provides recommendations to the Curriculum Committee. The chair of this subcommittee will serve on the Curriculum Committee as a non-voting member. 

4: Charge

The ARSC is charged with the following responsibilities:

1. Review adequacy of current educational resources, including number of affiliated hospitals, other facilities, IT, library, simulation and other critical for the educational mission.
2. Ensure adequacy of future educational resources to meet projected growth of the student body.
3. Evaluate resource needs of new curricular initiatives under development
4. Make recommendations to the Curriculum Committee and to relevant administrators on acquisition of new educational resources or reallocation of educational resources
5. Charge ad hoc groups as needed.

5: Guiding Principles

1. Governance procedures are consistent with the mission of SGU SOM.
2. The governance process encourages continuous improvement of the assessments used in the MD program.
3. All SOM students have access to an equivalent curriculum designed to align with the MD program objectives, and the learning objectives defined for each course and clerkship.
4. Processes leading to decision-making are based on open discussion, transparency, shared governance, and iterative consensus-building.  

6: Membership

1. Expectation of members:  Members are appointed by the dean to ensure broad representation of the SOM, members have the responsibility to function as “members of the whole,” working to optimize the assessments within the curriculum, rather than to represent the interests of a particular constituency.
2. Faculty:  The ARSC consists of six appointed faculty members
3. Terms:  Faculty committee members will serve three-year terms.  Members may serve two consecutive terms.  No person will serve more than two terms.
4. Appointment of faculty members:  Appointment of faculty will be by the dean of the School of Medicine.
5. Resignation: In the event that an elected committee member chooses to step down from the ARSC prior to the completion of their term, their replacement will be appointed by the dean of the SOM.
6. Possible replacement for absenteeism: Members who miss at least three of the committee meetings in a six-month period (or more than 50% of the meetings held in that time period) may be dismissed from the ARSC. Their replacement will be appointment by the dean of the SOM.

7: Procedures

1. Meetings:
   1. Meetings of the ARSC will be called once a month by the chair.
   2. Each committee meeting will be chaired by the Chair.
   3. The ARSC will meet at least once a month for a minimum of ten months a year.
   4. The Chair of the committee may petition the Curriculum Committee to invite other members of the SGU faculty, support services, staff and students to serve as ex-officio non-voting members or as guests. 
2. Parliamentary authority: The conduct of meetings will be governed by Robert’s Rules of Order.
   1. Recommendations will be passed by 2/3 majority. 
3. Voting 
   1. Voting members: Voting members are the appointed faculty members designated to vote.
   2. Quorum: A quorum will be considered to be half + one or greater of the voting members.

8: Communications, records and approval

1. The chairs of the ARSC will be responsible for ensuring that administrative staff keep accurate records of all meetings. Minutes of the meetings will be posted on the curriculum Sakai site within two weeks of the meeting.
2. The Chair of the ARSC will send the minutes of the ARSC to the Chair of the Curriculum Committee within two weeks of the last ARSC meeting and summarize any proposals that need Curriculum Committee ratification.
3. All decisions and recommendations made by the ARSC will be kept in the Curriculum Committee Sakai site, and access to all members will be provided.