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Academic
Update: Opportunities and Challenges
A 'town hall' presentation by Valerie West, Ed.D.,
and John Raymond, M.D.
Students and Academic Programs
“Our quality of students has improved over the years. It’s part of
MUSC’s drive to become more of a nationally prominent university. We have
a higher percentage of in-state students now than we did 10 years ago with
the exception of the College of Health Professions where the Doctor of
Health Administration program has attracted students from out of state.
The colleges of Dental Medicine, Medicine, and Nursing are all at or above
90 percent in-state, with Pharmacy and Health Professions right around
80 percent and the College of Graduate Studies at 60 percent. Universitywide
enrollment has remained stable over the years, but the number of undergraduate
degrees has decreased as academic programs switch the emphasis to graduate
degrees. This has happened particularly in the physician assistant program,
rehabilitation sciences, nursing and pharmacy. We have about 800 graduate
students to 400 undergraduate. We’ve seen growth in female, non-white,
in-state and full-time students over the past 10 years. And best of all,
we graduate 92 percent of the students we enroll.”
—Dr. Valerie West
Associate Provost for Educational Programs
and Interim Dean of Student Life
Academic Infrastructure
“The university has invested more than one million dollars in improvements
to its classrooms over the past several years. This includes funds for
college specific teaching spaces and universitywide rooms. The Basic Science
Auditorium was completely renovated as part of a project with the ELF Foundation
that included a state of the art sound system. Rapid technological advances
require that we continually upgrade our teaching spaces. As part of the
Classroom Upgrade Project new projectors have been installed in Baruch
and BSB 100 and five wireless classrooms will soon be ready for use. As
our teaching infrastructure continues to age, we recommend that teaching
and educational space be developed in all new construction. An investment
has also been made in faculty development, as 54 faculty have now completed
the centrally supported semester long course in designing web-based instruction.”
—Dr. West
Faculty Distinctions
Dr. Ken Cheng: APhA Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management Award
Dr. Jack Thomas: Association of Schools of Allied Health's Outstanding
Allied Health Educator Award
Dr. Vic DelBene: AAMC Humanism in Medicine Award
Dr. Rick G. Schnellmann: Editor of Journal of Pharmacology and
Experimental Therapeutics
Dr. Maria Buse: Albert Renold Award of American Diabetes Association
Dr. Inderjit Singh: Jacob Javits Award from NIH
Dr. Peter Cotton: Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
Dr. Roger Markwald: 2002 Governor's Award for Excellence in Science
Dr. Charles Darby: Haven Award for Selfless Community Giving by the
Community Foundation Serving Coastal South Carolina
Drs. Paul Underwood, Matthew Kohler: Among top 10 women's
physicians in the Southeast according to the “Ladies Home Journal”
in 2002.
Funding
“Our state-appropriated funding is down which has forced us to raise
tuition and fees. Nevertheless, the rate of rise in our tuition has held
fairly steady over the last decade, and has lagged behind the increases
experienced by students at South Carolina’s other research universities.
And we want to encourage our faculty and academic administrators to submit
more training grants, not just for financial relief, but to affirm our
national reputation for excellence.”
—Dr. John Raymond
Vice President, Academic Affairs and Provost
Buildings
“The old Charleston High School is the preferred site for a new home
for the College of Health Professions. This will provide the college with
80,000 square feet of academic space and give it a clear identity as a
college. Currently, programs in the college are spread over seven locations
throughout the city. This will bring all the programs of the college into
one location where they can continue their excellent academic reputation.
“The College of Dental Medicine will be named after Dr. Jim
Edwards and the new College of Dental Medicine building will be all clinical
space. Classrooms and offices will be located in adjacent and nearby buildings.
The building will be the first new building on Bee Street and next to St.
Luke’s Chapel.”
—Dr. Raymond
Opportunities and Challenges
“Continued support for faculty development and recognition for teaching
must remain a priority. We will explore ideas, such as “Society for
Teaching Excellence” as a vehicle for providing this type of support. Through
the good work of the Education Technology Laboratory, we hope to encourage
faculty to work together across disciplines to create common technology
enhanced instructional material in core content areas such as cultural
competence, teambuilding, and ethics. Changing demands in clinical education
call for collaborative initiatives for support and recognition of clinicians
both on-campus and in the community. Our partnerships with AHEC will
become increasingly important as more clinical education becomes
community-based.“
—Dr. West
Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as
needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations
for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South
Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107
or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst
Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu
or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community
Press at 849-1778.
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