Back on Campus: Week of January 11th

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

Greetings from a very chilly Elkins Park! It’s been a busy week since all of our classes, labs and clinics are back up to full speed after the holiday break. Frankly, it’s really nice to have everyone back on campus – you can feel the energy wherever you go!

Congratulations to our Student Optometric Service to Humanity (SOSH) group, who after a couple of false starts, were able to provide much needed and appreciated optometric services to the residents of Compton, California. This trip was in lieu of the one the group had originally planned for Haiti but had to cancel due to security concerns.  Sixteen students and two faculty from PCO participated in this humanitarian mission.

On Friday, January 18^th, from 1:00 – 3:00 PM, we will be welcoming a distinguished speaker to campus. Melissa Weiler Gerber, president and CEO of AccessMatters will present, "Sexual and Reproductive Health in 2019: It Was the Best of Times; It Was the Worst of Times." Her talk will highlight some of the most promising advancements in sexual and reproductive health, and focus on the political challenges to their realization. This presentation is also open to the community, so please spread the word. Read more about her and the presentation. 

On Thursday, January 24th from 8:30 – 11:00 AM, I’ll be participating in Invest Philadelphia’s 2019 launch event at the Lowes Philadelphia Hotel on Market Street. I will be part of a panel that’s entitled, “World-Class Minds: Education in Philadelphia”.  I’ll be joined on the panel with Dr. Guy Generals from the Community College of Philadelphia and Craig Carnaroli from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to our panel, Dr. Larry Kaiser, Dr. Jay Feldstein, Jack Lynch, Raymond Williams and Susanne Svizeny will be discussing, “Healing the Community: Healthcare in Philadelphia”. It should be an interesting morning – and a great opportunity to get the Salus name out there!

Yesterday the Real World Diabetes course commenced at The Eye Institute in collaboration with Temple Health. These classes will be focused on diabetes education, and held every Thursday until February 28th. Over the course of five weeks, participants will learn healthy meal planning, ways to stay physically active, and the importance of regular doctor visits and vital numbers to know about their diabetes. 

The Student Occupational Therapy Association is collecting toiletry items as well as cold weather gear for the resident workers at the Race Track at Parx Casino. There is a box for the collections in the lobby and will remain there until January 31st.

Thanks to Drs. Kylie Auman and Hang Nguyen, two of our residents at The Eye Institute, for their presentations at this morning’s Grand Rounds. Dr. Auman’s presentation of "Oculocutaneous Albinism: Genetics, Clinical Features and Management" and Dr. Nguyen’s on "Syphilitic Uveitis" were both extremely interesting and informative. 

The renovation of S300 is coming along nicely with the installation of new carpeting, furniture and technology just about completed. Bringing our learning environment up to a designated high standard has been a strategic priority for the University. I’m happy to report that we’re just about done. We plan on tackling the next group of classrooms this fiscal year. Up next, is the renovation of our lower level which will provide up-to-date student locker space, offices and a more secure data center for the University. This work should commence within the next month.

As the temperature outside confirms, it’s definitely winter! To help celebrate the season, our Salus Student Ambassadors have organized the Dean’s Winterfest that will be held in the Hafter Center from 12:30 – 2:30 PM today.  So, if you want to check your knowledge of holiday trivia, participate in an ugly sweater contest, decorate cookies or just have some hot chocolate and snacks, head over to the Hafter Center for some fun, a chance to win some prizes and relaxation!

Finally, the weather folks are predicting some snow this weekend so if you’re going out and about to watch the Eagles beat New Orleans or just hanging out, please be mindful of the weather. If you plan on enjoying the game on Sunday with family or friends, please moderate your alcohol intake and certainly don’t drink and drive. Be safe, look out for one another and have fun!

Mike

A Very Special Year for Salus: Week of January 4th

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

Happy New Year! As I noted in my New Year’s message earlier this week, 2019 is going to be a very special year for Salus. We are celebrating 100 years of professional innovation, creativity and advocacy of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry that has defined and will continue to define how the optometric profession is practiced not only in the United States, but internationally. These accomplishments, driven by a talented pool of faculty, students, alumni and others have created a legacy and heritage we can all be very proud to be a part of. We will be celebrating this throughout the year, culminating with our Centennial Gala to be held on April 27th in Center City. We also will be acknowledging PCO’s accomplishments during our May commencement where Dr. Lou Catania will be providing keynote remarks. Clearly, it’s going to an exciting year!

Our campus has been relatively quiet this week as most of students are not yet back from their holiday break. Next week will be a totally different story! Taking advantage of the lull, we held our biannual University Development Day for our faculty these last couple of days. The topics of Cultural Competency and Meeting Happiness were selected by our faculty organizing committee to help get everyone in the right frame of mind as we begin this next semester.  Special thanks to Drs. Brooke Kruemmling and Missy Vitek for taking the lead on this important forum.  I’d also like to thank Dr. Gary Chu who flew in from NECO to lead the discussion on Cultural Competency with the help of Dr. Ruth Shoge, Lachelle Smith and Ken Newton who helped to set the tone for the group. I think everyone gained a great deal from the day’s event. Today we will have the opportunity to hear Rafael Perez, the CEO of Do it Better Wellness discuss “Meeting Happiness”. It should be an interesting morning!

Finally, as folks prepare to come back to campus next week, I am hoping everyone has had a chance to recharge their batteries and arrive ready to meet all the academic and other associated challenges that go along with starting a new semester. It’s going to be an action-packed year!  Enjoy the weekend, cheer on our Eagles and come in Monday ready to hit the deck running!

Mike

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 

Holiday Edition: Week of December 14, 2018

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

It’s been another busy week at Salus with most of our students completing their last set of final exams. As finals begin to wind down, there were several "finals food experiences" Monday through Wednesday outside the café and Learning Resource Center ranging from bagels to yummy sandwiches to hot beverages. Additionally, mentors from the Peer Mentoring Program gave out stress reliever goodie bags Monday and Tuesday. Hopefully, all these extras helped to ease the stress and facilitate great outcomes on the exams.

The Hafter Student Community Center gym held its first Active Educational Workshops on Wednesday, December 12, where members have the opportunity to learn about different health, fitness, nutrition and/or wellness topics in a small setting with a trainer on staff. The first was Ride & Learn – a leisurely cycle class limited to 10 participants as they learned stress management techniques. 
 
If you haven’t had the chance to check out our new virtual tour of the campus, check it out here.  We recently partnered with YouVisit, LLC – an immersive technology company that connects schools with prospective students across popular platforms via virtual reality tours to design a complete walking tour of the University’s campus, giving prospective students unlimited access to the grounds of the University that can be viewed from at home on a computer or on a mobile device. Congrats to Alexis Abate and Lesley  Westerfer and their team for getting this all together. 

Thanks to Dr. Lindsay Bondurant and Bob Serianni for presenting a very informative Grand Rounds presentation at The Eye Institute this morning. It was great to see the interaction between optometry, audiology and speech-language pathology.  We need to have more of these interprofessional discussions within each of our programs and in the continuing education setting. Well done!
Today, in addition to everything else going on, we will be hosting State Representative Mary Jo Daley both at the Elkins Park and East Oak Lane campuses. The visit provides yet another opportunity for us to educate our state legislators about what we do at Salus. This is extremely important as the legislature takes on scope of practice bills for optometry and other professions.

Today is the annual holiday party where we get a chance to thank and recognize all of our very talented and dedicated Salus faculty and staff for the work they’ve done in support of our mission over the last year. Many of our folks will be receiving Service Awards ranging from five to thirty-five years.  Reflecting on that, most, but not all, of our students weren’t even born when some of our folks started here!  That puts things into perspective. The people who have been here the longest represent the shoulders all of us have been standing on as we move the University forward. I thank everyone for their hard work and dedication to the important work we do here.

Finally, I’ll be off the grid for a couple of weeks so I wanted to take the opportunity to wish everyone a very safe and joyous holiday season. 

Looking back, it’s been a pretty productive year at Salus. We’ve updated curricula in several programs, renovated classrooms, added exam rooms at The Eye Institute, dedicated the Lombardi Classroom, celebrated the 10th Anniversary of becoming a University, said farewell to several of our faculty and staff and welcomed new ones, just to name a few things from 2018. Next year we celebrate the Centennial Anniversary of our founding college, Pennsylvania College of Optometry. And what a party that will be! 

So, whether you celebrated Hanukkah last week or will be celebrating Christmas or Kwanzaa, I hope you’ve taken the time to reflect on all the great things that have gone on in our small world at Salus. Our University has served as an enabler, not just for our students, but also for everyone we care for on a daily basis.  Every child we see in the Philadelphia, Norristown, Abington or Jenkintown schools benefit from life-changing services that only we are providing. Having the opportunity to serve those who are less fortunate is a gift that we should cherish and be thankful for.  I am grateful for the commitment of our faculty and staff and the talented students who have chosen to attend Salus.  I want to take this opportunity to thank all of them for their hard work and dedication to the University. Special thanks to our alumni for your continued philanthropic support, which helps make many of the things we do possible and finally to our volunteer Board of Trustees for their time, support and invaluable guidance. 
 
Enjoy your well-deserved time off.  Spend time with family, friends and significant others. Recharge your mental batteries and get ready to hit the deck running when you return in January.  Be safe and look out for one another. 

Mike

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

Greetings from a chilly Elkins Park!

We have one week of finals behind us with the last week coming up more quickly than many students would like. That said, it’s been fun to see our Learning Resource Center (LRC) serving as the campus hub of activity during these important testing weeks.

In support of our students, my office provided the super-sustenance of bagels and cream cheese for students who made it to the LRC in the morning and our Institutional Advancement team will keep the carb theme going by providing famous Philadelphia pretzels today! We know how excited the Help Desk is about the pretzels, so hopefully, lots of you will share their excitement :-). There are probably more surprises in store for next week as finals week winds down.

There's no better way to de-stress from all these exams than with the help with some furry friends! Today, the LRC will host another pet therapy event to help students de-stress during finals week and the Hafter Center is hosting another Paws & Mats yoga session with kittens from Hart2Heart.

On the clinical front, registration is underway for The Eye Institute's Real World Diabetes Series - a free diabetes education course in partnership with Temple Health. Participants will learn healthy meal planning, how to stay physically active and other important ways to manage their health. The class starts January 10th - so please pass on this information to anyone who may be interested. To register they can call 215.276.6070 or email dmcreynolds@salus.edu.

Finally, today is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Naval Station Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, without warning and without a declaration of war, killing 2,403 American servicemen and civilians and injuring 1,178 others. The attack sank four U.S. Navy battleships and damaged four others. It also damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, and one mine layer. Aircraft losses included 188 destroyed and 159 damaged. In a speech to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the bombing of Pearl Harbor "a date which will live in infamy." The United States declared war on Japan December 8, 1941. The course of these events transformed the United States into a world power and ultimately defined America’s “Greatest Generation,” those who fought tyranny across the globe and won. Please take a moment to reflect on this and all those freedoms that have not come freely to all of us.

Have a great weekend. Be safe and look out for one another.

Good Luck with Finals: Week of November 30, 2018

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

Greetings from our Nation’s capital where Melissa Vitek, OD, FAAO, interim provost and vice president of Academic Affairs; Brooke Kruemmling, PhD, COMS, associate provost; and I are attending the annual meeting of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education’s (MSCHE). MSCHE is the overarching accrediting body for Salus. It’s always enlightening to learn about trends in accreditation and to see what other colleges and universities are doing as well as ensuring we remain in compliance within the standards we are accountable for. 

Later today, I head up to New York along with Dennis Washington, vice president for Institutional Advancement and Don Kates, CPA, vice president for Finance, to represent Salus at the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Society. Most of our regional politicians head up to New York City this time of the year to network and learn about constituent needs and wants. This presents a great opportunity for us to market the University and lobby for state funding for some of our most important projects. By keeping our local legislators informed about all the great things we’re doing for our students and the local communities we serve, we’ve been successful in the past in obtaining significant state grant funding for things such as the renovation of The Eye Institute, to include the lower level and our newest primary care clinic.  This time we’re hoping to lobby for funds towards making improvements at the Elkins Park campus.

Around campus, lots of great things are happening as well. 

Rachel Ditoro, MSPAS, PA-C, associate professor in the Physician Assistant Program, was interviewed by the Physician Assistant Education Association about the work our PA program is doing in Competency Based Education (CBME). 

We’re always trying to enhance our current academic partnerships and develop new ones. We're happy to announce that we have signed two new articulation agreements with the University of the Sciences:  a 3 + 4 Doctor of Audiology Degree Program and a 4 + 4 Doctor of Audiology Program. These help to develop pipelines of qualified students for all of our programs. 

I’m very proud to inform everyone that the University's Veteran’s Readiness Initiative (VRI) was recently awarded the Union League Veteran’s Club Table 2018

Philanthropy Award. The award was accompanied with a nice monetary donation to the program. Karen Hanson, PhD, program development ; Linda Casser, OD, FAAO, coordinator of Interprofessional Education, and I were all on hand to accept the award during a special ceremony at the Union League of Philadelphia just prior to Thanksgiving. 

As we prepare to enter finals week at the University, I want to wish everyone lots of luck (although I know you won’t need it because you all have been studying so hard) and thank the faculty for the great job they’ve done in preparing everyone so well! Have a great weekend. Be safe and look out for one another. 

Mike

Happy Thanksgiving: Week of November 20, 2018

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

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this week with friends and family, I want to take a moment to offer my gratitude to our extended Salus family – students, faculty, residents, staff, alumni and board members – for the energy, compassion, enthusiasm and cooperation that has made this past year so very successful for our University. What an honor and pleasure it is to work with such a committed group of professionals as we envision new ways to keep Salus moving forward. The spirit of improvement and dedication to excellence is truly inspiring.

It can sometimes be too easy for us to take for granted the freedoms afforded by this great country in which we live, which provides us the very opportunity we have during this holiday to gather peacefully with our friends and loved ones;  a situation brought into sharp focus over the past few months with the extraordinary challenges facing others in so many regions of our country and the rest of the world.

As we prepare for this week’s holiday, I want to thank you for what you do every day to make us a very special place to learn, work and support our community.  I also want to thank you for what you do to keep Salus University on its continued path of progress and innovation.

Tanis and I wish you all a very safe and restful Thanksgiving. 

Mike