Faculty Morale Improvement Project
Faculty Council Delivers Faculty Morale Report to SOD Leadership
Climate surveys conducted between 2017 and 2022 demonstrated that SOD faculty morale is low in comparison to the USCF schools of medicine, pharmacy, and nursing, and to other U.S. dental schools. Past efforts to improve faculty morale have not resulted in sustained improvement. During the 2022-2024 academic years, the SOD Faculty Council (SOD FC) explored barriers to sustained improvement in faculty morale with sponsorship and funding from the SOD Dean’s Office to support a UCSF Project Management Office consultant.
In December 2024, SOD FC members unanimously approved the Faculty Morale Improvement Project Final Report and delivered it to Dean Reddy. According to Dean Reddy, “This report comes at an opportune time as we prepare for the UCSF-wide climate survey for faculty, staff, and learners. The insights from your work and the climate survey will be valuable in informing our strategic initiatives to increase the sense of belonging and create positive change within Dentistry.”
Key Recommendations from the Faculty Morale Report for SOD Leadership:
- Acknowledge that experiences of faculty morale vary across Department and Divisions
- Commit to improving morale for all faculty
- Conduct a survey of SOD faculty morale annually. Ensure consistent and comparable questions are included from year to year.
- Co-develop a process that encourages as many SOD faculty as possible to complete the climate surveys so that there is enough data to break down by Department and Divisions. Address faculty’s fear of retaliation for providing honest feedback.
- Encourage collaboration between Dean’s Office and SOD FC and larger faculty to review survey results and identify measurable objectives related to faculty morale improvement for inclusion in True North.
- Delegate the identification and implementation of strategies for improvement to Department Chairs and Division Chiefs, working in conjunction with faculty (which may be different based on context), with Dean’s office support.
- Conduct bi-annual spot surveys to gauge progress.
- Co-develop a process, with SOD FC, Deans Office, Department Chairs, and Division Chiefs, to ensure accountability for improving the faculty morale objectives on an annual basis.
- Provide regular updates to SOD FC on progress.
- Support and accelerate a culture of improvement in the SOD in which anyone and every is encouraged to identify areas of improvement and work collaboratively to develop solutions.
- Collaborate with SOD FC and the larger faculty to identify information needed to foster a culture of improvement.
Read the FULL REPORT here:
We Need Your Voice: 2025 UCSF Community Climate Survey – OPEN JANUARY 8th to FEBRUARY 23rd
SOD Faculty Council fully supports UCSF Community Climate Survey and encourages ALL faculty to participate. Feedback to the campus aids in ensuring that the organization is being as welcome, inclusive, and equitable as is feasible. The community climate fostered by UCSF intends to make faculty, staff, and learners from all backgrounds feel respected, supported, and empowered to thrive. The SOD is aiming to achieve 60% participation this year. Check your inbox for an email from Emma White with the subject “Your invitation to the 2025 UCSF Community Climate Survey”. It contains your unique link to the confidential survey.
Key reasons to take the survey:
- To share positive feedback about the many things we appreciate about the UCSF climate.
- To provide constructive feedback about faculty, staff, and learner morale, particularly for the SOD FC’s 2 target measures identified for improvement during the Faculty Morale Project: 1) How respectful vs. non-respectful and 2) How consultative vs. authoritative is the UCSF climate?
- To collect enough data to examine trends and make comparisons between schools and SOD Departments.
Possible Concerns:
While the survey is confidential, it is important to consider that comments you provide could contain identifiable information. Campus ethics and compliance policies are in place to protect responders: https://compliance.ucsf.edu/compliance-roles-and-responsibilities
UCSF SOM Faculty Council Launches a Faculty Bill of Rights Initiative
SOD FC recently learned of an initiative related to SOD faculty morale – the Faculty Bill of Rights Project --being driven by School of Medicine Faculty Council (SOM FC) and the grassroots UCSF physician advocacy group Physicians for Engagement, Representation, and bi-directional Communication (PERC). PERC’s mission is “to make UCSF Health the best place for clinical work, a place where physicians feel empowered, effective, engaged, and valued.” You can read about PERC here:
What is the Faculty Bill of Rights Initiative?
PERC and the SOM FC are pursuing a “Faculty Bill of Rights” project this academic year. They have observed faculty moral distress due to incongruences among (1) delivering health and wellness solutions; (2) experiencing burnout; (3) fiduciary relationship with patients; (4) a non-fiduciary relationship with employer; (5) other health care team members having agreements on work hours and responsibilities and having organized representation (e.g. residents/fellows, optometrists, nurses, pharmacists, staff); and (6) present arrangements being a holdover from the past.
Then/Now: Faculty used to be partners in group practice models. Clinical practice was run by departments and overseen by the Department Chair. Clinical revenue then flowed to departments first and then the enterprise. Now, there is less partnership. Clinical practice is the purview of UCSF Health and is overseen by administrators. Faculty are seen as employees, and revenue flows first to the enterprise and then departments.
Problem: Having two “masters” - a school/department for academic purposes and a health system for clinical purposes is causing distress specific to academic physicians. Faculty have limited agency over determining clinical work. Faculty have limited representation in a health system decision making that affects their clinical practices. Faculty compensation is driven by UCSF Health funds flow formulas. There are no boundaries on uncompensated clinical faculty work. There is limited wRVU-based funds flow support for non-clinical missions. Faculty are left to navigate how to meet the multiple missions themselves.
Academic Medicine 2.0: Creating a new paradigm for sustainable excellence calls for the following: (1) mission alignment, (2) valuation of all contributions, (3) internal-external congruence, (4) inclusive leadership and shared governance, (5) sustainable work and supported careers, (6) leveraged strengths and enhanced synergies, (7) systems innovation and reimagined care, and (8) an expanded mission.
The FBR Project is not a call to unionize, but a call to cull together in one location all of the already-authored rights granted to faculty by the UC Regents and their respective UCSF Schools and Departments. It aims to advocate for those rights to be honored and incorporated fully into day-to-day frontline service performed by faculty and in interactions with students, colleagues, and administrators.
Faculty Bill of Rights Project and Initial Rights Framework:
Gap:
- Faculty are dissatisfied with the lack of:
- Control and limits on workload
- Self-determination and representation of their interests
Goal:
- Create a Faculty Bill of Rights concerning three domains: working conditions, governance, and fair treatment
Approach:
- Articulate, Assert, Advocate, Adopt
- Mobilize governance groups and faculty to draft language for key bill domains
- Circulate final document for comment, approval, and ratification
- Advocate for the FBR to be upheld and codified into practice
Faculty Bill of Rights Overview
- Rights of Work
- Right to sustainable, reasonable, and flexible work
- Right to adequately supported and resourced work
- Right to wellness-centered work environment
- Right to self-determination to pursuing core mission work
- Rights of Governance
- Right to shared decision-making
- Right to transparency of information
- Right to open, bidirectional communication
- Right to direct or elected representation
- Rights of Justice
- Right to equitable treatment
- Right to fair compensation
- Right to seek redress
- Right to organize
UCSF Academic Senate and SOD Faculty Council Support for the Faculty Bill of Rights Initiative
All Senate Faculty Councils along with the Clinical Affairs Committee, Faculty Welfare, and the Senate’s own Executive Committee have endorsed the development of a Faculty Bill of Rights.
The SOD FC heard a presentation on the Faculty Bill of Rights at the November 2024 Meeting. A vote was taken to support/endorse? the initiative which passed. The SOM FC is available to schedule a presentation on the Faculty Bill of Rights to the larger SOD faculty.
Chancellors Fund Awards – CHANGES COMING
The UCSF Academic Senate annually funds roughly $250K in conference travel grants (research/education), community building, and learning & development awards. The office spends another $250K on campuswide initiatives from a disability services campaign, to bikeshare support, to development of the Library’s Writing Center. It is anticipated that 2025 will be the final year for a division of funds in this manner – starting in 2026, the Academic Senate intends to support either solely big campuswide initiatives, or individual awards.
The 2025 Awards application window opens on Monday, January 27, 2025. Check here for more information: https://senate.ucsf.edu/chancellors-fund
Call to Service
Re: Academic Senate Call-to-Service
Dear UCSF Faculty:
The Academic Senate volunteer portal remains open for faculty interested in key issues impacting the University. Through faculty participation on its 21 standing committees and faculty councils, the Senate represents your voice when carrying out shared-governance responsibilities both at UCSF and at the UC systemwide level. While service on Senate committees is one way to fulfill a UCSF promotion requirement, it is much more for many faculty members. It is a way to support local academic communities and create positive change.
If you are interested in key issues impacting the University and its faculty, please complete or resubmit a Call for Service survey on the Academic Senate’s Portal page. The portal is open year-round for volunteer submissions, but for priority in consideration for service in 2025-2026, please complete your committee service preferences in the portal by January 31, 2025. Most committees have three-year terms that begin on September 1 and end on August 31. Under each committee, a description of the committee is provided, along with some of the key issues that the committee concerns itself with. The committee’s usual meeting schedule can be found on the committee’s webpage on the Senate Website.
While there is generally some turnover in all Senate standing committees, there are a significant number of openings for the following committees: Graduate Council, Committee on Research, Committee on Equal Opportunity, and Clinical Affairs Committee.
Thank you for considering Senate service.