President's New Year Message: Week of January 1st

 

All,

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone in the Salus community a very happy and healthy New Year! 2019 marks a very special year for us as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of our founding college, the Pennsylvania College of Optometry.  In this milestone year, I believe we’re at a juncture for reflecting on the thinking of our founder, Dr. Albert Fitch, whose vision for PCO was to create a professional school of optometry comparable to those of medicine and dentistry that resulted in a higher standard of proficiency and enlightened the public’s mind about optometry and its relationship to the conservation of vision. Today, that same desire is being realized more globally at Salus where we continue to innovate and break new ground through our innovative curricula and world-class faculty and programs. 

As we leave 2018 in the rear-view, I am pleased to report that our academic semester and calendar year ended on a very high note with the 2018 graduating class of our physician assistant program attaining a 100% pass rate on their national certification exam. This exceptional accomplishment has become the norm for this, as well as many of our other programs.

As we reflect on the past year, the last 12 months have been marked by noteworthy achievements and change. 

Just a few examples include:  

• Completing construction and dedication of the Lombardi Classroom
• Adding four additional eye lanes at The Eye Institute
• The Pennsylvania College of Optometry attained full re-accreditation from the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education
• Celebrating milestone professional recognition for several of our faculty members
• Salus was named “A great college to work for” by the Chronical of Higher Education
• Celebrating the 10th anniversary of attaining University status 
• Welcomed several new faculty and staff members
• We also bid farewell to Drs. Janice Scharre, Lorraine Lombardi and Sue Oleszewski, amongst others, all of whom made significant contributions to our institution over the course of their very significant tenures. 

2019 is a hallmark year for us. We will celebrate the heritage, rich history and unparalleled accomplishments of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry. At the same time, we will maintain our momentum and actively work to shape our own future as one of the nation’s premier health sciences universities. While it’s important to celebrate the past and understand what got us here, it’s imperative that we turn our eyes toward the future so we can continue to effectively build on the legacy left to us by our predecessors. That will assure we can strategically position ourselves to confront new challenges and remain agile in today’s dynamic healthcare and higher education ecosystems.

This new year we will also welcome our new Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Barry Eckert who, I’m certain, will contribute his extensive expertise towards expanding and bringing new ideas to our academic programs. 2019 also brings re-accreditation visits to our audiology and occupational yherapy programs and a visit to establish full accreditation status for our speech-language pathology program.

Needless to say, 2019 promises to be an extremely busy and exciting year.  Salus is a great university because of the students, faculty, staff and volunteer board members and others that bring our university to life. I look forward to working with each and every one of you as we continue to grow Salus and position ourselves for another year of great accomplishments and successes. 

Wishing you and your families health, happiness and continued success in 2019!

Mike