Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Jeffrey S. Flier announced that the Faculty of Medicine meeting would take place on December 19, 2013, followed by a reception for the recently promoted professors. He also briefly described his objectives for a new position at the School, dean for external education, and he encouraged Council members to nominate faculty who might be interested.
Dean Flier then welcomed Alan Garber, provost of Harvard University, who had been invited for an informal conversation with the Council. Garber assumed his position at Harvard in September 2011, and is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Health Care Policy at HMS, professor of economics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Garber’s research is directed toward methods of improving health care delivery and financing, particularly for the elderly, in settings of limited resources. His work addresses such issues as technology evaluation, comparative effectiveness, causes of health expenditure growth and health care productivity.
Dean Flier outlined the provost’s responsibility for a broad range of University-wide activities, including:
- Fostering interfaculty collaboration in the sciences, social sciences and humanities
- Improving Harvard’s performance in building a diverse pipeline of scholars and in developing scholars at all stages of their academic careers
- Advancing University-wide approaches to compliance and research policy
- Oversight and coordination of international activities
- Support for University cultural and artistic entities and projects
- Oversight of academic and administrative computing initiatives undertaken by the University’s Central Administration Information Technology group
- Oversight of activities pertaining to intellectual property, technology transfer, research collaborations with industry and trademark licensing
Garber noted that this was his first time presenting to the Faculty Council and referenced his previous work as chair of the HMS Visiting Committee. He also discussed his initial meeting with Harvard President Drew Faust and the unique and solvable problems he saw at Harvard. He compared the interdisciplinary work and collaborations at Stanford University with similar activities at Harvard, explaining how much more challenging that same work is at Harvard.
After his presentation, there was a general discussion of the value of online education versus the value of a classroom education. Garber said that online education would not replace the face-to-face experience in education. He noted the impact of online education on the economics of education and that traditional schools of higher education are looking to improve the student experience and relying more heavily on philanthropy to do so.
In response to questions about cross-institutional collaboration, Garber said that faculty interest is critical in identifying areas for collaboration. He also explained that Harvard Business School is unique among business schools due in large part to its executive education and publishing enterprises.
Dean Flier adjourned the meeting.
