School of Dentistry Convocation to
be held October 1
by Tom Rogers
On Monday, October 1, 2001, the first (and hopefully annual) School of Dentistry Convocation will be held on our campus to celebrate who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. On this day the entire student body, faculty, staff, alumni, University colleagues, and community are invited to join together at the University Church from 8:15 a.m. until noon to enjoy, be informed, and be challenged by a carefully prepared program. Music, food, encouraging words, our dreams and vision will be shared. Our entire School Family is expected to be there. This is going to be one of the most important gatherings of the School of Dentistry for the academic year.
The School of Dentistry has just finished a major effort in examining
these three issues: who we are, where we came from, and where we are going.
The intention was to create a future of choice that would allow the School
and its family of individuals to achieve their highest potential in service
to others. We accomplished this through our Applied Strategic Planning
process that involved a series of five multi-day retreats during August
2000 to July 2001. The major participants in this process were 25 individuals
representing our faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Each of these participants
formed an advisory group of 7 to 12 persons from throughout the extended
School family in an effort to include as many people in the process as
possible. A consultant was hired to lead us through the series of retreats.
We spent a lot of time discussing what is important to us as both a school
for training health-care professionals and an institution committed to
Christian values. This proved to be time well spent because it helped
us clarify what we want our School to become. We studied the process of
change and adopted a method of institutionalizing it at the School. We
adopted a number of general goals and more specific objectives. Some of
these are things that need to happen regardless of specific changes and
others are things that will lead us in new directions and help us reach
our potential.
An immediate outgrowth of this process has been the major reorganization
of the predoctoral dental clinic that was started at the beginning of
the present summer quarter. All D3 and D4 students are now assigned to
one of 10 group practices that are closely mentored by faculty assigned
to the individual group. The next step will be the assignment of dental
hygiene students to the groups. This will be followed by incorporation
of D2 students. We will also investigate ways to foster communication
between predoctoral and graduate students regarding shared patients.
Two of the major program goals that were adopted address creating an empowering
educational environment and creating an environment of effective communication.
These two sound nice, but what do they mean and what difference will they
make in someone’s life here at the School? Come to the Convocation
and find out. It is going to be entertaining and fun, and some very nice
door prizes will be handed out. We hope to see everyone there.
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All rights reserved. Revised February 14, 2001
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