Learning Environment Subcommittee

The Learning Environment Subcommittee (LES) serves as a standing subcommittee of the Educational Policy and Curriculum Committee (EPCC) of Yale School of Medicine.

This subcommittee oversees the review and reporting of curriculum-based harassment, mistreatment, and bias reports in collaboration with the Curriculum Directors and Associate Dean for Curriculum. The committee works with the YSM Director of Continuing Quality Improvement (CQI) and the YSM Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) to collect, review, and report on data/information on the learning environment and make recommendations for areas of improvement and action.

The LES will bi-annually report to the EPCC on these activities and recommendations. The EPCC retains final authority for the approval of changes to educational policies.

Specific LES charges include:

• Work in close collaboration with the Associate Dean for Curriculum and the Directors of the Curriculum in investigating and responding to student reports of harassment, mistreatment, and bias in the learning environment.
• Help devise, implement, and oversee a communication plan to make students and faculty aware of reporting on harassment, mistreatment and bias in the learning environment and the actions taken to correct and mitigate these behaviors.
• Work in close collaboration with the Director of Continuing Quality Improvement (CQI) and data analyst; TLC staff charged with program assessment tasks; and other YSM and University centers/offices that collect data on the learning environment, in order to centralize and review these data; and, based on this review, make recommendations for improvement.

• The Chair of the subcommittee: the Director of Program Assessment in the TLC (1)
• The Associate Chair: a member the Office of Academic and Professional Development (OAPD) nominated by OAPD leadership appointed by the Chair of the EPCC (1)
• MS 1 or 2 Representative elected by Medical Student Council (MSC) process (1)
• MS 3, 4 or 5 Representative elected by MSC process (1)
• MD-PhD Student Representative elected by MD-PhD Program process (1)
• PA Student Representative (1)
• Three Faculty representatives (3)
• One representative from each of these offices/programs, which are key to maintaining the learning environment (5):
  • Office of Student Affairs o Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  • Office of Student Research
  • MD/PhD Program
  • Joint PA On-campus and On-line Programs

Solicitation of student nominations:

• Students will be elected through the regular student elections processes led by the medical and PA student leadership groups.
• For the remainder of the 2022-23 Academic Year, interim student representatives will be invited to serve so that subcommittee organizing tasks can get underway; new student representatives will be elected in the fall through the regular student election processes.

Faculty nominations:

• Faculty and student elected positions will be advertised on the medical education committee’s website and communicated to department chairs, directors of medical studies, course/clerkship directors, and student leaders. Candidates may self-nominate or be nominated.
• Election procedure: Election of nominated candidates is done by vote of the members of the committee.
• No term limit