Friday, August 24, 2018

Farewell Dr. Janice Scharre: Week of August 24th


Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,

All of our new students now have the first week of studies under their belt!  From what I can see, everyone has been working hard getting into their new routines, which is great. In a couple of weeks the parking lot will be entirely full as the majority of our other students arrive on campus for the Fall term.

Yesterday and today, Salus faculty members participated in the University Faculty Development Day – an event that spans two days and is comprised of lectures to advance the faculty’s knowledge in several areas including creating tests to providing student support for personal and professional development. This year we were lucky to have a return visit from Johanna Inman, director of Temple University’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching. This year’s topic of “Creating Tests worth Taking: Evidence-Based Assessment” was extremely well-received during yesterday’s very informative session.

Thursday’s event was followed by an emotional faculty social and farewell to Dr. Janice Scharre who officially begins her retirement at the end of this month. Happily, Jan and her husband Dave both were able to be there for the event. I’m not going to go over all of the testimonials from the evening but rather say how much she is loved, respected and admired and will be missed by all of us here at Salus. I know I speak for the faculty, staff and Board of Trustees when I say that. In addition to celebrating Jan’s tenure at Salus, we also welcomed a host of new faculty members and acknowledged others who have recently been promoted. It was a very nice evening.

Today we continue with the University Faculty Development Day where experts from University Committees will discuss the judicial process for students and how to provide student support through the Center for Personal and Professional Development.

On Monday, we’ll dedicate the Marco Family Foundation classroom (W111 - next to the Learning Resource Center) at 3:30 PM. David Marco, from Marco Ophthalmic and the Marco Family Foundation, have been strong, generous and continuous supporters of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry and Salus as well as the optometric profession for many years. I have known David Marco for over 30 years and I can tell you first hand, that there is no greater supporter of optometry and moving the profession forward than David. The cutting-edge technology that Marco Ophthalmic has pioneered is changing the way we can perform exams, collect data and ultimately care for our patients. David and his wife Julie will be on hand for Monday’s ceremony and I’m very much looking forward to thanking them and showing them all the great things we’ve accomplished over the last few years with their help. 

It looks like this weekend's forecast will be the nicest of the month, so I encourage you all to get outside and enjoy the great weather. There are so many great places to explore in the greater Philadelphia area that are not too far from campus. These include Valley Forge, Center City, and Fairmont Park (which is huge) just to name a few. I always enjoy running on Forbidden Trail in Chestnut Hill on Saturday mornings as it’s shaded and there are usually lots of other runners enjoying the great scenery! Whatever you decide to do, stay safe, lookout for one another and come back Monday ready to tackle whatever is thrown your way!

Mike

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