Commission on dental accreditation to visit School of Dentistry February
12 to 14
by Tom Rogers
The School of Dentistry is being visited by its accrediting agency, the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), during February 12 to 14, 2002. There will be a number of people on the site visit team: three persons from the Commission itself, the team leader who is typically the dean of another dental school, five individuals examining different aspects of our predoctoral programs, two for dental hygiene, and one or two for each of our accredited specialty programs (endodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics, pediatric dentistry, periodontics, and prosthodontics). Each of these programs has produced a multi-volume document which addresses the detailed CODA reporting requirements. This process is called the “self study.”
The site visit is a very important event for us because we need to maintain
our status as an accredited institution to remain in business. It is also
a great opportunity. The primary purpose of the self study process is
for the School to define its expectations of the graduates of its various
programs and present evidence that the graduates are meeting these expectations.
To do this requires serious examination of all aspects of the School’s
programs and operations. We needed to identify our strengths as well as
weaknesses. We then needed to look for ways to reduce or eliminate the
weaknesses.
In many ways, the Applied Strategic Planning process that we have just
finished was a direct outgrowth of the early stages of our self study.
It became evident that we needed a more structured approach to finding
solutions for immediate problems as well as developing long-range plans.
Our Office of Strategic Planning will be an on-going legacy of the current
self study.
The Commission is interested in receiving comments from interested parties
regarding the School’s performance relative to the CODA standards
or policies. Students, employees and patients all fall within the definition
of what constitutes an interested party. Anyone wishing to review the
standards or policies of the Commission or ask questions about this process
can contact the Office of Academic Affairs (Dr. Ron Dailey) in Room 5514
of Prince Hall. The Commission can also be contacted directly at the address
below or by calling (800) 621-8099. Any comments must be in writing and
must be received by the Commission no later than 60 days prior to the
site visit (i.e. by December 12, 2001).
Written comments should be sent to:
Commission on Dental Accreditation
211 E. Chicago Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611
Anyone wishing to view the entire text of the predoctoral report can find
it at the School’s intranet website by following the sequence: <http://dental.llu.edu>
then click on “Accreditation;” then on “Draft Reports;”
and select “Predoctoral.”
All contents copyright © 2001 Loma Linda University.
All rights reserved. Revised February 14, 2001
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