Sunny Short Week on Campus: Week of January 19th

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

Greetings from a nice, sunny and cold Elkins Park. For a short work week, it’s been pretty busy around here. We have been working hard to begin planning for an optometric summit that will address the changing characteristics and decreasing numbers of the optometry school applicant pool.  This trend, which has been going on for over 10 years has concerned many of us since so many new optometry programs have come online over the past few years.  Changing demographics and healthcare delivery models, scope of practice, disruptive technologies and basic unawareness of the optometric profession by the general public are just some of the factors that likely affect this. The goal of this summit is to bring thought leaders from not only the optometry industry, but also some of the professions that have already been through this such as nursing, dentistry and pharmacy, together to attempt to define some root causes and then develop an executable plan to help increase and improve the current pool of individuals interested in joining this great profession. We’re going into this knowing there is no one simple answer but also knowing we have to begin to dissect the issue to see where it's best to start. As we progress with the planning of this important summit I will be certain to keep everyone informed as I believe the work that will be done will have a positive, lasting influence on optometry.  

This week we hosted State Representative Thomas Murt on campus. Rep. Murt’s district covers part of Montgomery County as well as part of Philadelphia. The goal of the visit was to not only show Rep. Murt what Salus brings to the local community but also the high quality education we provide all of our professions. He was particularly interested in optometry as the State is looking at an optometric scope of practice bill that can have a very positive effect on the way the profession is practiced in Pennsylvania. I believe that he left here with the impression that our optometry program prepares our students to practice full-scope care in any setting. He was quite impressed with the quality of our students and also our facilities. I consider it an honor and pleasure to “brag” about our great faculty and students who enable all of our great programs at Salus. That was not lost of Representative Murt.  I believe we made a real fan out of him.  

Last week 28 students from many different colleges from around the northeast attended our Optometry Learning Experience program. For the past 39 years students from undergraduate institutions from around the country have been given the opportunity to investigate the academic study and experiences associated with the Doctor of Optometry program at Salus PCO in addition to discussing the many career opportunities available to optometrists today. This year’s participants came from the State University of New York at Binghamton, Albany and Oswego campuses, Rowan University, Shippensburg University, Saint Joseph’s University, Montclair State University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Juanita College, Arcadia University, Widener University, Ursinus College, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and Elizabethtown College. Thanks to everyone who played a role in making this year’s visit a great success.

A reminder that the Dean’s Winterfest kicks off a the Hafter Center at 12:30 today. Thanks to our Salus Student Ambassadors, this is always a fun-filled event that I hope many of you can attend!

Finally, this morning Mr. Don Kates and I attended the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce’s annual “Economic Outlook” event.  Speakers included Michael Angelakis, chairman and CEO of Atairos; David Cohen, former chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia; the Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer at Comcast; and Jane Scaccetti, our own Salus University Board of Trustee member, and several other very prominent business leaders from our community. Most speakers in the group offered the opinion that the economic outlook for 2018 was bright with some caveats to include the current political discourse in Washington. Ms. Scaccetti described how she thought the new tax law would affect business and personal finances. It was pretty enlightening and very informative! Attending these events helps our leadership team at Salus to better understand the business environment and how that might affect us in both the short and long term. These events also provide us an opportunity to network with business and community leaders to market Salus and help to get our name out there.  

So, as we get ready to enter this weekend of the NFC championship games, I hope you enjoy the great weather and that your team wins. Go Eagles!