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January 2009 I believe I want to continue the theme I started in our last Faculty meeting: “The last seven months continue to be exhilarating, challenging, exciting and most of all, quite satisfying due to the outstanding faculty I represent”. Since our September meeting, I would like to highlight some of the Faculty’s accomplishments:
Ms. Kelly Maher, Manager of Alumni Affairs and Continuing Education and I are very excited to have Ms. Maskell join our team and further the development and enhancement of our Faculty alumni initiatives. As well I would like to welcome a well-recognized individual in our faculty to a new position. Ms. Marilyn Klein is no stranger to any of us and I believe all acknowledge her skills and expertise in the Department of Instructional Resources. Marilyn has agreed to become our Communications Officer. Ms. Klein has been given the responsibility for the overall planning, management and execution of a comprehensive communications strategy in our Faculty in order to ensure consistency in our messages and to distribute those messages through appropriate media in a timely manner. I truly look forward to working with Jen, Katie and Marilyn. I believe we have a tremendous opportunity to increase the Faculty profile, improve the sharing of information as a Faculty as an active member of the University community, with our alumni and friends and the community in general. I would also like to welcome Dr. Joanne Clovis’s return to the Faculty after a major surgery and am very glad Joanne is back with us. I would like to welcome Rev. Dr. Helen Ryding back on a part-time basis, teaching in Patient Care IV. It is a pleasure to welcome Helen back into our dental family. I would also like to recognize and extend my gratitude to all our Faculty who serve on our Faculty Committees, Senate Standing and University Committees, provincial, national and international dental committees, licensing, examining, research grants, etc. From my own experiences, I know how much time and effort is required to fulfill the obligations. Thank you for your dedication; it is through your efforts that our Faculty has such an outstanding reputation in these areas. Soon we will experience the Site Visit in our Accreditation process. The visit will occur in the week of February 16, 2009. The site visit team is: Dr. Tim Head will be the surveyor for the OMFS program. Dr. Sharon Compton and Ms. Patricia Covington will be the surveyors for the Dental Hygiene diploma program. A memo will be sent to all faculty members with the names of the above individuals, along with the schedule of meetings, including open times for full and part time faculty to meet with the teams. The Senate Review of the Faculty will occur at the same time. The Chair of the Senate Review Committee for Dentistry is Dr. John McCabe. The other members are yet to be named. The members of the committee will participate in some of the accreditation meetings and a few additional meetings may be required. We shall keep Faculty informed as the details become available. It is essential that all faculty members be available to provide input into this very important process. I want to thank you in advance for your 100% cooperation. The Dean’s Advisory Group continues to meet on a monthly basis, as well as the Managers Group on a bi-weekly basis. The advice and assistance on various issues and problem areas has been extremely helpful to me and the Dean’s Office. The past few months have been very busy with Dean’s Council and Senate meetings. A few of the following are items I would like to bring to your attention. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with all the universities in the province to fund our operations for the next three years has created, as you know, a tuition freeze but due to the new funding environment, Dalhousie is recognized for our past enrolment increases and will be partially compensated for that growth. The consequences of this financial situation, in combination with budgeting annually for strategic initiatives, we will have $15-17 million extra over the next two years. The University Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) will provide advice on how to best invest these resources. The BAC report released in the last few weeks has resulted in a $3.7 million deficit due to a faltering economy and therefore will result in a budget cut of 1.8% to 2.5 for each Faculty/Unit. The Campus Master Plan is underway. This is a process that takes a strategic look at the future of the campus and the University in a physical sense, conducted by Dr. Larry Sherman of the IBI Group as Lead Project Manager. The consulting team consists of five working committees:
This will be a one-year process, beginning with consultation, then conceptual campus planning phases and final report. Consideration will be given to parking, enhanced transit, wellness programs, and will be linked to the community. There are ideas for mixed uses for buildings, teaching and research in the middle area of a high rise, housing on top, ground floors with student, staff and public services. Recently, you have received information on the College of Sustainability, which will be holding an information session this week (January 21) and a grand opening on March 19. The College of Sustainability, Environment and Society is a product of cooperation of a number of Faculties: The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Management, Architecture, and Computer Science. It will occupy a dedicated, purpose-designed space on the Dalhousie campus where professors, students and the larger community can meet and exchange ideas. There will be a range of exciting lectures, seminars and activities offered. The Major in Environment, Sustainability and Society is situated within the new College. This reminds me to encourage everyone to visit the Dalhousie website and join the Dalhousie/Acadia Challenge, “One Million Acts of Green”. The university has been working toward implementation of a new fund-raising campaign. There are three phases to the campaign: A leadership stage of canvassing whereby over half of the $240 million target is to be accomplished, followed by a quiet phase, and then we begin the most active public stage. To date, approximately $80 million has been committed to the campaign from major donors. Our campaign priorities have been defined and revised from the Department input, and they are as follows:
Ms. Jen Laurette and I have been working with the Development Office, and with great assistance from Mr. Bruce Moxley and Ms. Kelly Maher have started the journey to develop the Faculty’s campaign strategies and plans. It is hoped that by the Spring of 2010, the internal faculty and staff initiative will begin. In the area of recruitment, we are continuing to search for a Biomaterial Scientist; a full time faculty member in Dental Hygiene and a Dental Public Health faculty member. In the area of education and curriculum development, the student laptop program continues to move forward with the electronic health record development and using the student laptop computers in each cubicle. This has not been an easy process sand I want to thank Dr. Blaine Cleghorn and Mr. Bruce Moxley as the leaders in this project for their dedication to the project coming to fruition. The electives programs are continuing to flourish in the fourth year DDS program, and the Bachelor of Dental Hygiene program was officially launched in September, and has enjoyed a successful first term under the directorship of Professor Peggy Maillet. This year, Mindfulness was officially introduced into the DDS and Dental Hygiene curricula under the directorship of Dr. John Lovas. Its success has spread to workshops for faculty and staff. Drs. Debora Matthews and Ed Ghiabi are working on the proposal for the Periodontic Specialty program and preparing documentation for various hurdles as the program development leads toward final Senate approval. In the area of research, we continue to have major excitement in basic science, clinical and community/population health areas. Please visit our website for all the exciting details on our Faculty’s accomplishments. As well, under “new events” you will see where Dentistry is featured in the Dalhousie Gazette. Dr. Debora Matthews and her research team’s focus on oral health for seniors in Nova Scotia is featured. We are very proud of the research activities in our Faculty and continue to support our members in their cutting edge scholarly activities. This year’s White Coat Ceremony was very successful and also allowed the Faculty to recognize the Class of 2012 as the 100th anniversary class. Details on the 100th anniversary events will be released in the near future. Our Alumni Dinner was a wonderful event, with a record number of alumni attending. Dr. Alfred Dean and Dr. Monty MacNeil were the recipients of the Outstanding Alumni Awards. Congratulations to both. This brings to a close my review to date. I would like to thank all of our faculty, students, staff, alumni and friends for their continued support. It is your continued support that makes our Faculty such a success. A quote for the day, “The people who get on in the world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, they make them” – George Bernard Shaw
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