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Ancillary Departments and Services

Division of Institutional Relations: The Division of Institutional Relations is a service division with major emphasis on financial development, alumni relations, marketing, public relations and institution-wide publications and communication.

The Vice President for University Advancement reports to the President and to the Executive Committee of the MCG Foundation Inc., in the capacity of executive director of the MCG Foundation Inc.

The division strives to support presidential programs by building university endowment and financial support, communicating to the citizens of Georgia the work under way at MCG, developing rapport with alumni and carrying out necessary internal communications.

Alumni Affairs: The alumni office establishes and maintains the commitment and involvement of all graduates, residents, interns and faculty to MCG through programs of the alumni associations of the Schools of Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Studies, Medicine and Nursing. The alumni office ensures the vital linkage of alumni to MCG by giving the alumni opportunities for support, eliciting significant feedback from them and providing them with information through printed matter, one-on-one visits and group meetings.

An up-to-date record system is kept on all alumni and former fellows, residents and interns. All graduates, residents and interns as well as faculty members are welcome to join the various alumni associations. Income from membership dues for each alumni association enables them to provide various programs of interest and need for their constituents and the institution. The board of directors of each of the alumni associations administers these programs through a representative in the alumni office.

Regional, national and other social events are held each year along with campus events such as homecoming, class reunions and alumni/student seminars. The faculty is always invited and involved in alumni events. Each year the School of Medicine Alumni Association hosts a spring event to honor the faculty of the School of Medicine. An alumni/faculty committee was formed years ago by the School of Medicine Alumni Association to maintain communication between alumni and faculty. The president of the School of Nursing Alumni Association meets with School of Nursing faculty monthly to give updates on the programs of the association. Faculty members also help the alumni associations secure speakers for alumni events and alumni/student seminars. Faculty members are essential in establishing and preserving the bond with alumni.

Public Relations/Marketing:  The Department of Public Relations and Marketing promotes MCG's mission of education, research and patient care both internally and externally. The staff produces publications such as the quarterly alumni magazine MCG Today, he Beeper newspaper, the Student Pulse and the MCG and Children's Medical Center Annual Reports, as well as brochures, pamphlets and other materials. Also, through Television Production, the public relations staff produces television commercials, documentaries, radio programs and specials shows both for internal and external broadcast.

The public relations department assists members of the media by generating press releases about MCG. Faculty members are contacted by institutional relations staff to generate stories for the media and set up interviews.

Any story relating to the university, regent's policy or financing is within the scope of the president's office and should be cleared through the president's office and released by institutional relations or the president's office.

A public relations staff member is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to assist the media with any requests which might result from an emergency situation which involves patients or faculty at MCG.

The Speaker's Bureau list is available through Institutional Relations for organizations wishing to have a member of the faculty or staff of MCG as a guest speaker. All speakers are volunteers, and, at present, more than 100 lend their service to this project in the interest of communicating health information to the general public.

The public relations office assists in many institution-wide projects and publications. Faculty members may seek assistance from institutional relations with the understanding that proper planning is critical due to the volume of work annually scheduled and the deadline-type atmosphere that the staff must work under.

When a public relations project begins, medical illustration, medical photography and television production work with the editors and writers in institutional relations as a team to provide the best quality possible.

The public relations staff also promotes the services offered at MCG Hospital and Clinics and the Children's Medical Center in a marketing capacity.

Development Program: The development program manages the fund-raising for MCG. This unit is divided into four sections: solicitation of annual contributions; special project development; planned giving; and corporate and foundation support.

The annual fund projects include a telethon for the MCG Children's Medical Center, which culminates the year-long fund raising activities of the cause-related marketing staff, phon-a-thons for alumni of the five schools, personal visitations and a series of letter appeals from the president of the university and alumni volunteers.

Special project development works with campus administrators who define special program needs necessitating private fund-raising efforts. The nine-year effort of the Children's Medical Center staff and volunteers has produced significant dollars and increased public awareness about the university. Other recent projects have include the Interdisciplinary Research Facility and endowed chairs in telemedicine, molecular medicine and genetics and immunogenetics.

The planned giving program seeks to increase the university endowments through major gifts in donors' wills, trusts or other estate plan arrangements. Through a series of quarterly mailings of financial materials related to the tax benefits of charitable gifts, the institution encourages its alumni, faculty and friends to make planned gifts. Personal visitations to prospective donors and a network of loyal alumni help build the endowment.

The development office seeks financial support from the corporate and foundation sectors. The office seeks to match local, state, regional and national funding interests with the medical expertise and program needs of the Medical College of Georgia.

Information maintained in the database of past and current funding interests is available to faculty and administrators at MCG. Guidance in the development of grant proposals is provided by the development office.

MCG Library Program

Health Communication: The Division of Health Communication has as its overall mission the educational media support of the many multifaceted programs at the Medical College of Georgia as they strive to reach new horizons in instruction, research and patient care. The five sections comprising the division are television (ext. 1-3811), art (ext. 1-2234), photography (ext. 1-3351), classroom services (ext. 1-3061) and equipment maintenance (ext. 1-3440). These sections, plus the division's related satellite center in the MCG Hospital, engage in a variety of innovative and creative activities and provide quality support materials essential to health education and institutional communications.

Continuing Education:  The Division of Continuing Education is organized under the office of the vice president for academic affairs. It is composed of three sections: program development, conference coordination and a statewide extension service. The division supplies quality continuing education opportunities to health sciences faculty and staff, statewide health care practitioners and national and international visitors. It offers and/or accredits broadbased continuing education programs ranging from workshops and seminars to correspondence and distance learning courses. In planning and facilitating such programs, continuing education supports faculty with multiple services and benefits including curriculum and evaluation design, program marketing, site selection and onsite registration and general logistical support. The division processes appropriate continuing education credit and maintains computerbased records of credits and attendance. Ext. 1-3967

Domestic and Foreign Travel Information for Faculty:  The regulations, policies, and procedures relative to institutional travel are published in the Administrative Policies and Procedures of the Medical College of Georgia, policy numbers 1.2.03 & 1.2.03a. Generally, each employee required to travel in the performance of official duties and entitled to reimbursement for expenses incurred shall have authorization for the performance of this travel and to be absent from campus prior to travel. Reimbursement for travel is contingent upon a properly completed and approved Travel Expense Statement. Any questions or clarifications can be obtained from the Travel Office in the Comptroller's Division, Room HS B-201, extension 1-2658.

Mail Services: The Campus Mail Center is located in the Warehouse/Laundry Building--BL-114. Service at this location is offered Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Ext. 1-3996.

Public Safety:  The Public Safety Division was organized in 1973 to provide MCG with a professional law enforcement and occupational safety program that would serve faculty, staff, students and visitors.

Emergencies: Any person who reports a crime or discovers a safety hazard, fire, accident or other emergency situation should immediately notify the Public Safety Division at ext. 1-2911.

Police Bureau: A professionally trained police department staffed with police officers, public safety officers, and communication officers enables the Police Bureau to provide 24 hour protection and service on campus. The bureau provides a total law enforcement program and other community services such as escorts for female students and employees and assistance to disabled motorists. Crime prevention programs, property engraving, fingerprinting services, security surveys and new employee orientations are provided by the Police Bureau. Statistics on criminal activity occurring on the MCG campus are available at the Public Safety Building (R.A. dent Boulevard and Laney-Walker Boulevard). The Police Bureau is equipped with modern emergency and police equipment to provide immediate response to all emergency incidents. Report all emergencies by calling ext. 1-2911.

Safety Bureau: A professional staff of safety personnel coordinates all campus programs on accident prevention, fire safety, training programs and other topics pertaining to safety. Periodic inspections are made of campus buildings and grounds. Training classes are conducted throughout the campus on a scheduled basis. Call ext. 1-2911 if a safety emergency arises and ext. 1-2914 to request other services.

Environmental Health and Occupational Safety: A professional staff of technical personnel provide services, assistance, and information on chemical and environmental safety. This section coordinates all MCG programs relating to chemicals and environmentals through services, training sessions, environmental/air monitoring and regular inspections of all the regulating agencies pertaining to chemicals and biologicals. Call ext. 1-2911 if a biological emergency exists or 1-2663 or 1-3721 for assistance on chemical and biological safety.

Parking Bureau:  This bureau coordinates traffic movement and parking on the MCG campus. Except for patient/visitor vehicles, all vehicles operated and parked on the campus must be registered with this bureau and must display an MCG decal or permit. Parking privileges are not transferable. Faculty, staff and student parking is available on a first come first serve basis for registered vehicles. Some special designated spaces are on campus and should only be used for such purposes. The Parking Office is located in the Information Center (BO) which is on 15th Street in front of the Hospital and Clinics Parking Deck. Ext. 1-2953.

Transportation Bureau:  This bureau offers a variety of transportation services to MCG departments, visitors and patients. Specially equipped vans and an ambulette are used to transport handicapped and stretcher patients to and from MCG clinics for treatment. The bureau also handles special transportation requirements for MCG departments and has available two 17-passenger buses which may be leased for a nominal fee. Valet Parking is also managed by this Bureau. Request for services or information may be obtained by calling ext. 1-2945.

Vehicle Services Bureau: This bureau provides preventive maintenance, scheduled and unscheduled repairs to MCG's vehicle fleet, orders replacements while maintenance is being performed and provides petroleum services to MCG and other state agency vehicles.

Lost and Found: Articles lost or found at MCG should be reported by contacting the Public Safety Office at ext. 1-2911.

Information Services Division

Information Technology Support (ITSS): ITSS is divided into six functional areas described below:

The Administration Group has responsibility for the Computer Skills and Literacy Workshops program; coordination and exploration of new technology; budget coordination and management; committee liaison and clerical support. The workshop program is being expanded to include more sessions and new topics. A proactive program will be initiated whereby the ITSS staff, in conjunction with interested campus users, can carefully explore and evaluate new information technologies and determine their effective application in the MCG environment. Acquisition of EDP and office automation equipment or services requires specific EDP approval. These acquisitions must be a part of the institution and state EDP Plan(s). The MCG EDP Plan and the processing of EDP Requests are coordinated by the ITSS.

The Applications Development Group is responsible for the analysis, design and programming of new systems using mainframe and client server technology. They will provide technical assistance for the installation, testing and tailoring of commercial application software. Maintenance of existing systems and the provision of special extracts from the various data base files remain a large part of the responsibilities of this group.

The Telecommunications/Networking group provides support to the fastest growing area of information technology; personal computers (PCs) and local area networks (LANs). This group will provide the file server operations support, work station support, a centralized help desk function, and PC/LAN based applications support. The Help Desk is the user's gateway to assistance, advice, and problem resolution for PCs and LANs as well as problem resolution for mainframe applications. The Help Desk should be called when anything that was working now does not. It is a functioning service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at extension 1-7500. New projects or new requests for service should be directed to the User Services department described below.

The Technical Operations section consists of Computer Operations, Technical Services and Data Base Administration. These groups support the IBM ES/9000 mainframe which services the Hospital and Clinics and Institution, an IBM RS/6000 for research computing support, and an RS/6000 which runs the MERLIN Library Information System.

Voice telecommunications at MCG uses the State of Georgia's own telephone network - Georgia Interactive Statewide Telecommunications or GIST. Instructions for the use of the GIST network may be found both in the campus telephone directory and in the State of Georgia (GIST) telephone directory. The Information Services Division currently coordinates all campus telephone administrative matters and is liaison with the Department of Administrative Services (DOAS) in processing service order requests. For additional information, contact the Telecommunications Office at extension 1-4157.

The User Services group has representatives who coordinate all efforts between ITSS and campus users. The User Service Representatives (USRs) should receive all requests for new services and they should be notified of all calls made to the Help Desk when computer hardware or software is broken. Each USR will work closely with the Vice Presidents, Deans, and the Associate Hospital Directors to help establish priorities in the areas to which they are assigned.

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October 23, 2007