Addressing Supreme Court's Ruling On Affirmative Action: Week of June 30, 2023

 

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

Good morning on another hazy day in our region. It’s been an eventful week as we prepared to bid farewell and safe travels to our Thai optometry students and a belated welcome to our SLP and audiology students from Taiwan. I’d also like to welcome all our new PCO residents and ODS students to Salus.

In addition, here are some other items of interest:

AOA CONFERENCE: Last week I attended the 2023 American Optometric Association conference, referred to as "Optometry's Meeting” in Washington, D.C. PCO/Salus was well represented at the conference, and it was great to catch up with our alumni and friends. Read more about the conference here.

SALUS AWARDS GALA RETURNS: After a few years off due to the pandemic, the Salus Awards Gala made a triumphant return. Hosted by our Campus Activities Committee, the Salus Awards Gala honored various Salus faculty, students and staff who have made an impact throughout the year. Click here to see who was honored.

ADAPTIVE RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES DAY: The second annual Adaptive Recreational Activities Day, sponsored by Hanger Clinic and Alps®, was held last Saturday at the Hafter Center. The event celebrated individuals with physical or cognitive disabilities, including limb loss, brain injury, blindness and low vision or mobility challenges, and was supported by healthcare and rehabilitation professionals and those with experience and expertise in adaptive sports and recreation. Read more about it here.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh in 2019 with a degree in Communication Science and Disorders and learning about the Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) program at Salus University, Gabrielle Verrillo, MS ’21, decided to check it out. She was sold immediately. Read more here about how our SLP program prepared her well for her current career.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Many of you may have read the email that Dr. Mosley Williams distributed Tuesday in advance of yesterday’s decision by the Supreme Court that Harvard and UNC’s use of race in their admissions process violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. I wanted to share my thoughts, as well. I respectfully disagree with the findings of the Court. Salus and the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, prior to us becoming a university, have always deeply valued the importance of cultural and racial diversity, as evidenced by our 40-year commitment to our Summer Enrichment Program and our recruitment efforts across all our programs.

As the pandemic clearly taught us, huge disparities persist in the quality, level of access and trust in the American healthcare system. It is imperative that we not only recognize this, but continue to actively address this through our recruitment of underserved populations into all our programs.

In a New York Times article on a study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the difference in newborn mortality rates among socioeconomic and racial cohorts of women is striking. For every 100,000 births, 173 babies born to wealthy white women die prior to their first birthday; 350 babies born to poor white women die; 437 babies born to wealthy black women die; and 653 babies born to poor black women die prior to their first birthday.

In maternal health, the situation is equally stark: “The CDC estimates that, in 2021, the maternal mortality rate among Black women was nearly 70 deaths for every 100,000 live births. That is 2.6 times the rate for white women, regardless of income or education (PBS Newshour, 6/28/23).” To say that race is not a factor in health outcomes is to ignore the evidence.

Dr. Jay Feldstein, the president of Pennsylvania College of Osteopathic Medicine recently published an editorial in Fortune Magazine that outlines this and other disparities that are clearly apparent in our healthcare system. One of the only ways that our society will be able to help to curtail this and other disparities for other underserved populations is to ensure that we continue to recruit and train healthcare providers that reflect the cultures and racial composition of those populations we serve. The importance of recognizing cultural humility in healthcare and actively addressing health inequities has never been as important as it is now. 

Salus will continue to actively recruit the most diverse student body that we can. We will not be deterred in working toward the best outcomes for our students and our patients. Our current admissions process, which does not consider race, recognizes all the factors, including the lived experiences, backgrounds and perspectives of students, that shape and contribute to their professional formation.

There will be a great deal of press following the Supreme Court’s decision on this topic in the coming weeks, espousing various perspectives. I want you to know that we will continue to maintain our steadfast commitment to recruit and train a student population that reflects diversity, inclusion, and cultural humility. 

Be safe, continue to look out for one another, stay hydrated and remain SALUS STRONG!

-Mike