Forty-eight members of Georgetown’s Medical Center faculty and staff have signed a petition protesting University President John J. DeGioia’s proposed creation of a Senior Vice President/Dean of Clinical Affairs administrative position at the edical Center and his subsequent intent to appoint Dr. Sam Wiesel, currently Executive Vice President for Health Studies, to fill the post.

The petition, dated Dec. 6, indicated a significant lack of support for the move on the basis that it will damage the academic quality of the Medical School, the financial resources of the university and the morale of medical center faculty.

The Senior Vice President/Dean of Clinical Affairs position was included in the Framework for Medical Center Governance, a document created to establish a new means of administration after months of negotiation and cooperation between the university, the medical center and MedStar Health Systems. MedStar Health is the medical center’s non-profit health-care management partner and is mainly responsible for its clinical enterprises. Section IIIC of the Framework lists the position as a part of the Medical Center’s Executive committee.

According to Assistant Vice President for Communications Julie Green Bataille, “President DeGioia felt that Dr. Wiesel has made a number of contributions to the Medical Center and that his continuing in this dual role will further strengthen Georgetown’s partnership with MedStar Health, which is vital to the university’s future.” She also noted that considerable effort had been made to satisfy the groups involved and that DeGioia made final decisions in areas where compromises would not be reached. These decisions were announced publicly to the Medical Center community last semester. DeGioia has not yet released an official comment on the petition.

According to the petition, DeGioia’s proposal would allow the new senior vice president to be employed by both the university and MedStar. Those who object to the proposal say the position is unnecessary and inappropriate because it diverts university funding to an administrative post whose duties, the petitioners say, will essentially be the same as those of the executive vice president, a position the medical center faculty will play a hand in recruiting and that they say is an integral part of reforming Medical Center administration.

According to Michael Cole, a faculty member in the icrobiology/Immunology department and a signer of the petition, the main point of contention is the conflict that may ensue if the position is employed by both the university and MedStar.

“It is putting Dr. Wiesel in a position of having two masters whose aims are diametrically opposite,” Cole said. He noted that MedStar, for example, is responsible for teaching the third and fourth years of medical school and thus receives a portion of the tuition money earned. According to Cole, this would put the senior vice president in an “untenable position without knowing where his loyalties should lie.”

Petitioners say the original plan was to develop a single position of leadership – an executive vice president to appoint deans to the medical school. The current EVP position has the final say in the policy making and direction of the medical center. Petitioners say that DeGioia’s move compromises the EVP position, which they feel would be integral to the future morale and success of the medical center. Signers of the petition emphasized that they felt their opinions on the issue had been ignored. “We left DeGioia in no doubt of our position on the issue. The faculty gave clear indications on more than one occasion that we did not want this,” Cole said. They also feel it may hurt the credibility of the Medical Center.

“This will impact not only our national ranking and the quality of our education, but also our fiscal viability,” the petition said.

It also addressed past dissatisfaction with Weisel’s leadership. “The faculty have expressed an unequivocal lack of confidence in Dr. Wiesel’s academic vision . it is a grave concern that the university leadership has chosen to ignore this input,” the petition read. The faculty had voted “no confidence” in Wiesel’s leadership twice in the past.

Cole emphasized that the petition is not intended to be an attack on any individuals, but a statement against the creation of a potentially compromising administrative position and an airing of grievances by members of the faculty who felt they had no other choice.

“This move by DeGioia knocked the wind out of our sails. I think we are all disappointed,” Cole said.

According to Karen Gale of the Department of Pharmacology, the faculty at the Medical Center are “outraged. None of us understand why they’re considering this,” she said.

According to Cole, “morale can’t get any worse. We labored for months for the new system only to end up with the major fly still stuck in the ointment. We’re incredulous.”

MedStar joined in partnership with the Medical Center two years ago following four years of considerable financial losses by the edical Center. Under the terms of the agreement, the university sold a controlling interest in the hospital and the clinical enterprises of the Medical Center.