LLU School of Dentistry Journal

School of Dentistry celebration held October 1

Dr. Goodacre addresses faculty, students, staff, and University colleagues during the celebration held October 1, 2001, in the University Church.

On Monday, October 1, 2001, the first (and hopefully annual) School of Dentistry celebration was held on the LLU campus to highlight who we are, where we came from, and where the School is going.

On this day the entire student body, faculty, staff, alumni, University colleagues, and community joined together at the University Church of Seventh-day Adventists from 8:15 a.m. until noon to enjoy, be informed, and be challenged by a carefully prepared program. Music, food, encouraging words, and dreams and vision for the School were shared.

The School of Dentistry has just finished a major effort in examining 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.

The groups discussed what is important both as a school training health-care professionals and as an institution committed to Christian values. This helped clarify what the School should become. The Applied Strategic Planning process studied change and adopted a method of institutionalizing it. A number of general goals and more specific objectives were developed. Some of these need to happen regardless of specific changes and others 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 summer quarter. All D3 (third year) and D4 (fourth year) dental 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 (second year) students. We are also investigating ways to foster communication between predoctoral and graduate students regarding shared patients.

Two major program goals that were adopted address creating an empowering educational environment and creating an environment of effective communication.