Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members
and Friends,
Good morning, as we start the last weekend of summer! Fall
begins on Monday 23 September.
This week started with a meeting with members from the
Montgomery County Redevelopment Corporation as the next step in finalizing the
Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant we received from the Commonwealth. It’s a long, bureaucratic
process, but clearly well-worth the effort!
As many of you realize, we would not have been successful in our efforts
to obtain the grant if it wasn’t for the great support we get from our local
legislators. To that end, on Wednesday, it was an honor to
have State Senator Art Haywood visit our campus to present our Physician
Assistant program with a symbolic $500,000 check. The funding will help renovate two, 50-seat
traditional lecture style classrooms and construct a standardized patient assessment simulation lab. Read more at salus.edu/RACP-grant
Speaking of political support for the university and our
programs, on Tuesday I spent the day in Harrisburg where I had the opportunity to talk with
Speaker of the House Mike Turzai and discuss key issues affecting our students
and programs including the cost of education and the ability of our graduates
to practice at the level at which you are being taught. He was
extremely receptive and has invited me back for a more detailed discussion
about these issues. I’m looking forward
to that! I also had the opportunity to
meet with key staffers from the House Appropriations Committee to discuss how they
might be able to reinstate funding from the Commonwealth that could help to offset
tuition for PA residents and the cost of unreimbursed care we provide to many
of our patients. As we get gain momentum
on this, I’m going to ask all of you to engage in a letter writing campaign to
your respective representatives to help move this forward.
Tuesday was a long day because after my day at the Capital,
we hosted a Centennial Tour event in Harrisburg that was attended by several
alumni as well as one of our Salus Board members. These events have been
a great way to reconnect with alumni and allows us to inform them about all the
great things that have been going on around campus. Our next Centennial Tour event will
be in Washington, DC next Tuesday at Boqueria - Penn Center, from 6PM -
8PM. To register,just click HERE.
Next week, the Physician Assistant (PA) Class of 2019 will
showcase their capstone presentation from Monday, September 23 to Friday,
September 27. The presentations cover a variety of timely healthcare issues and
are open to Salus University students, faculty and staff, as well as the local
community at large. I encourage you to look at the attached schedule and attend
some presentations that interest you!
On Saturday, The Eye Institute, the Pennsylvania Ear
Institute and the Speech-Language Institute will be working together at the
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine at their annual Wellness Fest.
The event will include children’s activities, fitness classes, cooking
demonstrations, live entertainment, guest speakers, relaxation activities, food
trucks, and more. Stop by the Salus table anytime between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00
p.m!
On Monday, we’ll be hosting our quarterly Board of Trustees
meeting here on campus. That’s always a
busy day, but it provides us with a great forum for the exchange of ideas and
to let our volunteer board members know all the great things happening at the
university.
I
will be spending most of next week in Washington DC, participating in a
couple of important events. The first is a round-table discussion on
higher education hosted by Senator Bob
Casey. I plan on asking the Senator to continue
his advocacy on student finance reform, and specifically to address the
high
rates of these loans, as compared to current consumer loans and the
perverse way
the federal government’s student loan process allows the interest of
those
loans to accrue from the day promissory notes are signed, as opposed to
allowing accrual of interest to be deferred until graduation. I’m
certain I won’t be the only one bringing
these issues to the table.
The next event is at the Department of Veteran’s Affairs. I have been appointed by the Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs
to serve as a member of the Special Medical Advisory Group (SMAG), which will
also be meeting in Washington next week.
The SMAG is a relatively small group that provides advice to the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Under Secretary for Health on matters
relating to the care and treatment of veterans and other matters pertinent to
the operations of the Veterans Health Administration. I look forward to serving on this important advisory group.
Finally, after the SMAG meeting, literally, Tanis and I will be headed to the
airport for our flight to Germany. I
have one more 10-mile training run this weekend before next Sunday's Berlin marathon. While I’m not expecting a
record-breaking time (or anywhere close), my goal at this point is to finish! So, as you get ready to take on the weekend,
hopefully I’ve inspired you to get some exercise, enjoy the nice warm (maybe
even hot) weather we have and have some fun.
Be safe, drink lots of water and use plenty of sunscreen and look out
for one another.
Mike
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