Date of Senate Approval 05/08/03

Statement of Faculty Senate Action:

FWDC 15:          Proposal to establish the Pre-Health Professions Advisory Committee
                         as a Standing Committee (formerly the Pre-Medical Students Advisory Committee)

Purpose:

The Pre-Health Professions Advisory Committee is responsible for coordinating advising and writing a committee letter of recommendation for students interested in seeking an advanced degree at a Health Professional School (medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, etc).

Membership: The committee will be composed of seven members, three of which will be permanent based upon their regular duties. The members are as follows:

Director of the Pre-Health Professions Advisory Committee (appointed for a five-year term by the VCAA in consultation with the AVCAAs). This person must be a member of the faculty.

The campus physician or another health professional who is deeply interested in UNCA (appointed annually by the VCAA).

Coordinator of the Pre-Health Professions.

Four faculty serving staggered four-year terms (appointed by VCAA in consultation with the AVCAAs

and FWDC).

Recommendations to: Director of the Pre-Health Advisory Committee.

Reports to: The VCAA

Rationale:
This committee is already operating as the Pre-Medical Students Advisory Committee [10.4.21] and has been in existence for about 10 years. However, no Senate Document exists establishing the committee.

Membership should include faculty interested in advising students from any academic discipline who are interested in the health professions. Some of the members should be faculty who teach courses required by most health professional schools (one year of English, one year of biology, one year of general chemistry, one year of physics and one year of organic chemistry) because these faculty will have taught students who plan to attend Health Professional Schools following graduation from UNCA. It would also be useful to have a practicing professional on the committee (Campus Physician) and also the Coordinator of the Pre-Health Professions. The Coordinator of the Pre-Health Professions may be located in career services and will be responsible for placing students in shadowing or internship experiences, for developing opportunities for individuals from the Health Professional Schools to visit UNCA and for providing other career resources to UNCA students.