Purpose: To collect baseline data and describe how medical schools handle faculty affairs and faculty development responsibilities.
Method: In January 2000, the authors surveyed faculty affairs designees at 125 U.S. medical schools, using a questionnaire developed in consultation with a group of faculty affairs professionals.
Results: The responding 76 medical schools (61%) support over four times as many offices of faculty affairs as faculty development offices. Core functions of faculty affairs offices include administrative support for appointments, promotions, and tenure committees; faculty information and policies; faculty governance processes; and department chairs' recruitment support and personnel management issues.
Conclusion: While a consensus is emerging about the functions of a faculty affairs office, no school has a comprehensive faculty development system, in contrast to most industries, which must be more forward-looking to compete for talent.
Since 1990, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has held eight professional development conferences for medical school administrators responsible for a broad array of faculty issues. This informal group deals with faculty appointments, tenure, employment contracts, compensation, faculty reviews, legal issues, human resources, and professional or career development for teaching and related responsibilities. The medical school administrative offices handling faculty affairs or faculty development are some of the newest that have been formalized in medical schools. Although the management and development of faculty are increasingly complex and important,1-3 no centralized information has existed on how medical schools handle these responsibilities.