White Coat Day: Week of August 17th

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

It’s been a fantastic week at Salus. While I know I did this in person the other day, I’d like to again welcome our more than 300 entering students who attended orientation this week. Thanks to the great work of our admissions and student affairs departments as well as each program for making this week unbelievably productive and chock full of great information for our new students. During the course the of the week, these young professionals had the opportunity to learn more about Salus, each of our programs, as well as their own programs and the culture here at the University.

Associated with Orientation Week, we had a wonderful turn out at the Alumni Epic Trivia Night on Tuesday where new students, current students, and alumni had a chance to socialize and enter into a friendly competition. It looked like everyone had a great time.

Today, Orientation Week culminates with our traditional White Coat Ceremony. This will be held at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Center City at 2:00 PM. We are excited to welcome the families and friends of our new students as they participate in this annual rite of passage from being a layperson to becoming a healthcare professional. It’s a wonderful venue to celebrate the achievements of these great students as they begin the next chapter in their professional lives. We’re very disappointed that Dr. Janice Scharre, who was supposed to be our keynote speaker (as I mentioned in last week’s update), now will not be able to join us.

The Pennsylvania College of Optometry and now Salus has always played an important advocacy role for each of our professions. This has not changed as we have been strongly advocating in favor of an optometric scope of practice bill that is currently in the legislative process in Harrisburg. We have been asked to host Commonwealth legislators on campus to highlight what and how we teach future optometrists to prepare them to practice anywhere in the country. I have been asked to meet with several key legislators to do the same, which I’m excited to do. Advocating for each of our professions, based on the education we provide them, is an important part of the Salus mission that we take very seriously. We’re hopeful that our involvement in the process will help to move our professions forward.

Finally, it looks like we might actually have a dry weekend, so that’s good. I may even get to run on Forbidden Trail without ending up a muddy mess! I encourage all of our new students to get settled in, do some exploring, hopefully get some exercise and be ready to hit the deck running on Monday. Be safe, be respectful of each other and have fun! See you all next week!

Mike