November 2008 Archives

Happy Thanksgiving perhaps, but it's not been a happy week for news.  On Monday Dr. Lyman gave it straight to the provost's council - budget cuts are no longer "on the horizon"; they're here, in our face.  2% for the current year (annualized, since we're nearly halfway done already, that's really 4%), and 4% for the next year beginning in July '09.  What's more, cuts can't take the form of "unspent dollars," as in positions that just happen to be vacant stay vacant; they must be "hard" cuts, as in vacant positions that disappear from the budget book altogether.  Ouch, that's painful, my friends!  More often than not, money that goes away stays away. 

If there's a silver lining (though calling it "silver" would be an extended stretch), it's that nobody's job is on the line - no layoffs, no emergency force reductions, no departmental erasures.  At least for now.  Watching the economic carnage unfold "outside" our university, it's hard to be cheerful, to be sure.  But all the more reason to be determined, and courageous - hope for the best, prepare for the worst. 

Fasten your seat belts, colleagues, it's likely to be a bumpy ride.

Quite a week just past - a seeming avalanche of events and indicators of the vitality and capacity of the college -  

* On Tuesday, a team for Carey University seeking to establish a new doctor of osteopathy program visited campus.  It's clear that Carey is strongly motivated to collaborate around a range of issues, including research initiatives and opportunities for their medical students to pursue the Master of Public Health degree simultaneously. 

* On Thursday I participated in a Miss. Dept. of Health Office of Tobacco Control advisory council meeting chaired by former attorney general Mike Moore.  The office is doing great work preventing youth smoking in particular, and Prof. Vivien Carver is a key evaluator of some of the community work going on around the state. 

* That same day evening I attended the "Issues and Answers" lecture sponsored by USM-Gulf Coast College of Health and the Sun Herald newspaper; Dr. Roy Duhe, a pharmacological researcher at the UM Med Center, spoke (in layman's terms, thank goodness!) about exciting new research in the prevention and treatment of breast cancer. 

*Friday was a true bonanza of community education, when two CoH events occurred simultaneously - Social Work hosted a spirited panel presentation and discussion on child mental health needs in Mississippi, and Community Health Sciences featured presentations on another severe Mississippi ill - infant mortality.

Community education and impact around critical health concerns - is there any work more important than this?

The SGA had a great idea - assemble the dean and associate deans of each college, and give the students majoring in that college's programs a chance to meet them face-to-face over cookies and coffee.  The College of Health had its turn last Tuesday afternoon, over at R.C.'s Lounge in the Student Union.  SGA cabinet members turned out in force, and president Cirino was gracious and charming as always. 

But for whatever reason - and it's hard to think that the presidential election didn't have a little something to do with it - virtually no CoH students turned out to chat with Drs. Nugent, Kemker and me!  The delightful exception was Ms. Taylor Bailey - a bright, affable and articulate nursing student so clearly passionate about the profession she's preparing to enter that you only need one to remember why what we do - readying students for competent professional service - is so important and worthwhile. 

The CoH deans are ready to try "mixing" with students again, pretty much anywhere and anytime, but NOT, I would suggest, on the day of a national election that just may prove to be a turning point in American history!