Michael Morales, associate professor of Geology, Dwight Moore, associate professor of Biology, and Amy Sage Webb, associate professor of English and president of Faculty Senate, discuss the addition of new policies on campus Friday afternoon. After an audit by the Kansas legislature, ESU must document how each professor and each department allocate their time. Andrew Dorpinghau/THE BULLETIN
The Faculty Senate held an executive meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss the addition of new policies on campus: a low enrollment policy and a faculty load policy. Both of these policies are interrelated and will be implemented at about the same time.
“The problem is we don’t have a (faculty load) policy and we’re talking about what it would look like, how to go about writing it,” said Amy Sage Webb, associate professor of English and faculty senate president.
After a legislative audit from the Kansas legislature, the university was asked to document and report on how each professor, and collectively, how each department spent its time.
“The legislature can ask for any information that it wishes to look at,” Webb said. “You probably remember the security audit. They asked all of the institutions to prepare a report for them about how they responded to emergencies. Out of that, you are told what you might need to do to adjust. This is the same kind of thing. They are looking at what faculty (members) do.”
This includes the number of courses a professor teaches and the number of students in those courses.
However, other factors also come into play. When a professor teaches a lab class, these are considered contact hours and count differently than a regular class.
Further aspects include professors who conduct scholarly research in their respective areas or field work, and those who advise Recognized Student Organizations or other groups or organizations that do not include classes.
“We’re trying to figure out what we might agree on, as an institution, across the board,” Webb said. “Is there some sort of general benchmark that we agree on what we do with our time and how we decide?”
Webb said she was unsure of what the legislature would be doing with this information but the members of the executive committee did their own preliminary research to find out about other schools’ faculty load policies.
“We just looked on the web to see what kind of policies (other universities had),” Webb said. “Some of them are pretty broad and some of them are very specific. We wanted to see what other institutions do and what would be a good direction.”
The low enrollment policy has more to do with how many students are in each class. For instance, an upper level course may only have four students enrolled in it but if the minimum enrollment was set at 10 students, administrators may need to consider cancelling the course.
“There were some numbers that the chairs and the deans agreed upon that would be minimum number for certain types of classes,” Webb said. “A graduate course could stay on the books with seven people in it but an undergraduate course would need (approximately) 20.”
These minimum numbers keep the university from offering classes that don’t have very many people in them. If a class does not have very many people in it, it’s eventually not cost effective, Webb said.
After the Executive Faculty Senate meeting, a forum to meet the candidates for the second vice president of faculty senate was held at 3:30 p.m. in the Greek Room.
More than 20 people attended to meet Joella Mehrhof, professor of health and physical education and Kevin Johnson, assistant professor of business administration and education.
The previous second vice president, Carol Russell, associate vice president of elementary teacher education, was moved to the position of vice president. James Costello, assistant professor of psychology and rehabilitation and previous vice president, stepped down due to professional reasons, Russell said.
Whichever candidate wins the election, which starts today and continues through 5 p.m. Wednesday, will have several months before moving into the position of vice president.
“The nominating committee is gathering together right now to select candidates for second VP for next year,” Russell said. “The election is supposed to occur in the fall.”
After a year as vice president, the winning candidate will become president of the faculty senate.
At the forum, candidates were asked questions about their potential presidency in the academic year 2010-2011, including how they plan to open lines of communication with students.
“Communication with ASG is a necessary part of the job,” Johnson said. “Students seem to come and talk to me a lot and I listen to them.”
Mehrhof also thought that communicating with Associated Student Government was important, along with knowing the issues students have and listening to their concerns.
“Give me your cell phone number,” Mehrhof said to Jonathan Krueger in response to his question about communicating with students. “I might be texting you.”
Ashley Peaches/The Bulletin
Getting a toehold on ingrown nails
Dermatology Times July 1, 2007 | Jesitus, John Kona Island, Hawaii – To make noil surgeries as quick and safe as possible, one expert recommends keeping procedures simple and the staff welltrained.
Because treating ingrown toenails can be time-consuming, “Most physicians, including many dermatologists, don’t want to deal with them “says C. Ralph Daniel, M.D., clinical professor of dermatology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Miss.
“Many medical dermatologists choose not to do surgery, some surgical dermatologists might choose to do procedures mat would have higher reimbursement rates and leave the ingrown toenails to those who more frequently treat this problem” he explains.
However, he says an effective strategy for these treatments combines the use of chemical matrixectomy and the efforts of a staff trained to handle presurgical preparations – such as patient questionnaires-as efficiently as possible.
In ingrown toenails, Dr. Daniel tells Dermatology Times, “The nail plate grows into the surrounding soft tissue structures. When that happens, there is a splinter or foreign-body reaction – the body tries to expel it,” as evidenced through an inflammatory response that can include granulation tissue swelling.
Sometimes, he notes, a secondary infection occurs, which also must be treated.
Predisposing factors for ingrown toenails include genetic factors, wide feet and trimming nails incorrectly.
“They should be cut straight across, not rounded at the edges,” Dr. Daniel says. website ingrown toenail treatment
Additionally, he says orthopedic problems such as supination and pronation, as well as high-heeled and/or narrow-toed shoes, can create pressure that results in ingrown toenails. In these areas, Dr. Daniel says patient education can help prevent problems.
To cut or not to cut Treatments for ingrown toenails range from nonsurgical to surgical.
When a patient presents with a very early ingrown toenail, Dr. Daniel explains, treatment can involve 20 percent to 50 percent urea applied to the nail plate once or twice daily.
“To decrease the rigidity of the nail plate, which therefore decreases the splinter effect, one also can use cold soaks” with ice and water for five minutes three or four times daily for one to two weeks, he adds.
In contrast, Dr. Daniel cautions that warm soaks could increase inflammation in this case.
If an early stage ingrown toenail presents with inflammation, he says, “One can apply a medium to higherpotency topical steroid after each soak for approximately one week.” Another technique for treating early ingrown toenails involves teaching an assistant to place wisps of cotton underneath the ingrown part of the nail plate to lift it out, Dr. Daniel says. One also might place dental floss for similar effect (J Am Acad Dermatol. 2004;50:939-940), he adds. One researcher also has recommended using tape to pull the nailfold away from the area of ingrowth (Int J Dermatol 2004;43:759-765).
For more severe ingrown toenails, surgical options include anesthetizing the nail before cutting out the nail plate using an English anvil nail splitter, Dr. Daniel says. After this procedure, he suggests using a chemical nail matrixectomy on the side that’s ingrown to decrease the chance of recurrence. This procedure decreases the nail matrix’s ability to make the nail plate in the area of ingrowth, Dr. Daniel explains.
He says he uses the chemical matrixectomy method most frequently because it’s relatively simple and doesn’t require specialized knowledge or experience.
With this procedure, Dr. Daniel says, “One just cuts out the offending part of the nail plate and applies a chemical” to the portion of the nail matrix that created it.
Solutions used for chemical nail matrixectomies include 88 percent phenol or 10 percent sodium hydroxide, he says.
Using a CO2 laser to treat the affected side of the nail represents another surgical option (Dermatol Surg. 2005;31:302-305), Dr. Daniel says. This procedure involves cutting out the offending part of the nail plate, exposing the matrix in that area and then employing the laser to vaporize the part of the matrix that produced the ingrown nail plate, he says. Similarly, he says one can perform traditional excision by starting distally and excising proximally ail the way through the offending part of the nail matrix, then suturing the area back together with the nailfold, which permanently produces a more narrow nail.
Staff training paramount Whatever procedure one is performing, Dr. Daniel says the key to efficiency is training one’s staff to have everything prepared-including consent forms signed and equipment set up – so that one can walk into the room and the patient is ready to be examined.
On a broader scale, Dr. Daniel says that before one does nail surgery, “One must learn about the anatomy of the nail apparatus.” Digging deeper Other nail procedures include nail biopsies. website ingrown toenail treatment
“If one has a choice, perform the biopsy in the more proximal part of the nail matrix because there tends to be less scarring” with this approach, he says.
For biopsying the origin of a longitudinal pigmented band, he says recent research has suggested that a shave (as opposed to punch) biopsy produces smaller scars (Haneke E. Z Hautkr. 1988;63 Suppl 2:17-19).
Also relatively new is a fingeradapted MRI for imaging of the nail unit before performing surgery for neoplastic or cystic structures, he notes.
“It’s particularly good for imaging a glomus tumor or a cystic structure such as a mucous cyst (Dermatol Surg. 2001;27:261-266),” Dr. Daniel says.
He also has suggests using 2 percent ropivacaine for an anesthetic because it works immediately and can last up to eight hours.
[Sidebar] Quick READ White many dermatologists avoid ingrown toenails because they can be time-consuming and difficult to treat, one expert says simpler procedures and effective staff training can maximize one’s efficiency.
[Sidebar] Disclosure: Dr. Daniel has served on the board of directors of Bradley Pharmaceuticals, a manufacturer of urea.
For more infomiation:
www.umc.edu Woo SH, Kim IH. J Am Acad Dermatol 2004;50:939-940; Arai H et al. Int J Dermatol. 2004;43:759765; Ozawa T et al. Dermatol Surg. 2005;31:302-305; Haneke E Z Hautkr. 1988;63 Suppl 2:17-19; Richert B. Dermatol Surg. 2001;27:261-266 [Author Affiliation] BY JOHN JESITUS SENIOR STAFF CORRESPONDENT Jesitus, John
