University Of Medicine And Dentistry Of New Jersey

UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE AND DENTISTRY OF NEW JERSEY SCHOOL OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE STUDENT COUNCIL One Medical Center Drive  Suite 210  Stratford, NJ 08084 Tel: (856) 566-6981  Fax: (856) 566-6714  email: [email protected] Student Council Minutes Meeting Date: 10-18-2007 Location: Top Doc’s Cafe

Next Meeting: 7:00 p.m., Thursday, November 15, 2007 Location: Top Doc’s Cafe

I. Call to Order and Attendees: (A) The meeting was called to order at 7:10 p.m. (B) Attendees: Council STUCO Board: Gwyneth Eliasson, Rosemarie Robledo, Soumya Bollampally, Rachel Schatz, Mike Ruzek, Alexis Davison Class of 2008: Allen Nau, Michael Sinkoff Class of 2009: Jennifer Stellke, Sarah Nitka, Ken Minett, Brookshield Laurent, Juli Wysocki Class of 2010: Erin Toller, Rebecca Wadsworth Class of 2011: Oliver Chang, Elizabeth Jasolosky, Kristen Spencer, Tom Nappe

Guests Dean Cavalieri, Interim Dean Dr. DeRisio, Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs Dr. Lambert, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs

(C) Excused: Andrew McCague, Amy Sweigart, T.J. Maltese, Kristen Fleming, Matt LaPorta, Wayne Sherman (D) Unexcused: None.

II. Approval of Minutes (A) The August and September meeting minutes were unanimously approved.

III. Special Business (A) Open Forum with Dean Cavalieri (1) Dean Cavalieri would like to welcome Dr. DeRisio, the new Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs, who joined the SOM community on October 8th. Dr. DeRisio oversees the whole of clinical services at SOM. He is a former faculty member in the SOM Department of Pathology. He holds an MBA degree, and up until recently he had been serving as medical director of Quest Laboratories in Cincinnati. The largest group of primary care and specialty doctors is in southern New Jersey, so Dr. DeRisio’s work will be of utmost importance to clinical training in our area. (2) Dr. DeRisio addressed STUCO. He said his future goals include making a faculty practice plan, increasing revenues, and reinforcing teaching. He will be teaching in the pathology department, and he thanks SOM for welcoming him to the community. (3) Additions to faculty at SOM: Two new gastroenterologists were hired, and Dean Cavalieri reports that a third may be hired in the new future. SOM has a new neurologist, Dr. Copola, who will be joining the school at Stratford in November. The long-term goal is to have a comprehensive neurology/neurosurgical residency program at Kennedy and Lourdes. (4) Federal Monitor Report should be released soon. Most of the report is suspected to be about Camden rather than UMDNJ. Details to follow in a week or two. The Monitor is expected to leave UMDNJ by December 31st. There is a small possibility that his visit will be extended, but Dr. Owen and Dr. Rodgers do not suspect that will occur. (5) Middle States: Last week Middle States was supposed to have a team come to UMDNJ to then present findings at their November meeting regarding UMDNJ’s probational status. Due to a personal emergency of one team member, the visit was canceled and cannot be rescheduled before the November meeting. Consequently, no decision can be made regarding our status until Middle States’ next meeting in March, and thus the report cannot be delivered at the COCA meeting in December. (6) Space expansion: Plans are being drawn up for an addition to the Academic Center out to Medical Center Drive. Plans include two large amphitheaters that will each seat 200 people with a common wall that can be opened to form one large auditorium that can accommodate 400 people. There will be 12 new PBL/breakout rooms. Expansions will also be made for the nursing, public health, and health-related professions schools. These plans were developed with the idea that with an expansion of SOM, there will be no need for another medical school in South Jersey. (7) Graduate medical education: Discussions are underway to expand sites for education at South Jersey Healthcare in Vineland, Our Lady of Lourdes, and Robert Wood Johnson hospital in Rahway (the last specifically for a family medicine program). (8) Concerns regarding Touro Medical School: Currently the school has branches in New Jersey, New York, San Francisco, and Nevada. The school in Harlem, New York, was just dedicated and just admitted its first class this academic year. The New Jersey branch is the only allopathic school and is seeking an affiliation with Hackensack Medical Center. It is not yet accredited. The plan is for the first first- year class to begin one year from now, but the Dean from that school thinks a start time of two years from now is more reasonable. Class size is estimated to be 40 students. The concern is that Touro may recruit faculty from New Jersey Medical School. (9) The AOA Conference was a good and productive meeting, and Dean Cavalieri appreciates all the great student participation in San Diego. (10) Visit from the AOA President on November 14th: An agenda is currently in the works. The AOA President apparently is very interested in fitness, and there will be a fitness run with the President at 7 am around campus. He will then tour the school, meet with Dean Cavalieri, will have lunch with students and student leadership, and will meet with department chairs. Dr. Owen and Dr. Rodgers were also invited to this event. (11) Matt LaPorta has brought it to Dean Cavalieri’s attention that students are requesting rearrangements for space and study in Top Doc’s Café. Dean Cavalieri is taking suggestions from students and STUCO regarding this issue.

(B) Open Forum with Dr. Lambert (1) Student reimbursement process (a) Timeliness for travel forms being turned in: The earlier students turn in their forms for travel requests, the faster/easier the process will be for reimbursement. Dr. Lambert strongly recommends submitting complete forms as soon as possible. (b) Students have submitted expense reports without proper receipts. Receipts that are submitted with reports must be authentic documents. Any other receipts submitted will not suffice. (c) It is now possible for a check to be given to a student requesting funds before travel has occurred. A travel approval form and memo from whatever club/organization is providing other funding and how much they provide still need to be turned in. For this advance check, forms must be submitted at least one month ahead of time. This is a good option for students who are very tight on money. The check may not be for all of the money requested, but a good portion of the money will be allotted to dilute some cost. Dr. Lambert will send an e-mail to all students with more details regarding this issue. (2) Retroactive funding (a) The rule currently is STUCO cannot hear proposals after trips have occurred. The travel funding request must be heard and documents must be turned in and be on the agenda prior to the trip in order to get any funding. (b) From now on, all funding requests must be submitted to STUCO before travel is completed. Any documents submitted after the 3pm Sunday before the STUCO meeting deadline will require written justification as to why the request is late. (3) STUCO’s request for continued funding from NJOEF: NJOEF’s tentative budget allows $5000 to be allotted for STUCO. More money may be available. (4) The Boards Boot Camp fee will herein be taken from the spring, rather than fall, financial aid disbursement. (5) Students may certainly wear Halloween costumes to class on Halloween as long as attire is not offensive to any group or is sexually explicit. (6) Erin Toller asked Dr. Lambert if there could be any standardization of address change procedures for students who move. Dr. Lambert will further research this issue to see if the process could be expedited from its current complexity.

IV. Executive Committee Reports:

(A) President: Recent news (1) SOM’s Dean Search Committee: In August, Dr. David Rissmiller, Chair of the Psychiatry Department, was named Chair of SOM’s Search Committee. Recently, Dr. Rissmiller decided that there would be 1 student representative on this committee. After careful consideration, SOM student leadership felt that the STUCO President was the appropriate choice to fill this position. The 1st meeting date is pending. (2) Medical Education Technology Committee: Dr. Krueger announced the formation of a committee to look into improving medical education through technology. Possible advancements being considered include a virtual histology lab; wired study carrels outside the anatomy and histology labs; and sims patients integrated into Physical Diagnosis sessions. He requested STUCO’s help in finding 6 students interested in being on this committee, along with Dr. Krueger, Dr. Kimmelman, Susan Caldwell of IST, and Bob McBride of Media. When more than 20 students applied for the 6 spots, STUCO chose the first responders from all 4 classes to ensure SOM-wide representation, but allotted 2 spots to both the 1st and 2nd year classes, who are most likely to encounter these improvements over the next few years. The 6 student representatives (in alphabetical order) are: Aislinn Black, OMS-III; Mark Bratus, OMS-II; Vineetha Joseph, OMS-II; Stacey Kuhfahl, OMS-IV; Tom Nappe, OMS-I, 2011 Curriculum Representative; and Kahyun (Kay) Yoon-Flannery, OMS-I. The committee’s first meeting is scheduled for October 25th. Thank you & congratulations to the committee members! (3) COSGP Meeting: From September 28th to September 30th, Rosemarie Robledo and Gywneth Eliasson represented SOM at the Council of Osteopathic Student Government Presidents (COSGP) meeting in San Diego, CA. This year, SOM is on the Student Services Committee, which coordinates the Student DO of the Year and the TOUCH (Translating Osteopathic Understanding into Community Health) programs. Gwyneth is on the committee that will select the national Student DO of the Year recipient. (4) SOM Breakfast at AOA Convention: On September 30th, SOM’s STUCO President attended the SOM breakfast hosted by Dean Cavalieri at Buster’s Beach House in San Diego. Attendees included Dr. Krueger, Dr. Hock, Dr. Kaari, Dr. Nagele, Dr. Robinson, Dean Micciche, and students from all 4 classes. (5) ERAS Personal Statement Workshop: On October 12th, Michael Choi, Managing Editor of EssayEdge, led a workshop on writing a strong personal statement. (Thanks again to AMSA for contacting EssayEdge.) The second, third, and fourth year students who attended analyzed 3 sample essays and heard useful general tips. Since many 3rd year students had rotation commitments, materials will be emailed to the class listserv. (6) UMDNJ-CSL Teleconference: On Saturday, October 13th, Gwyneth participated in a teleconference with other members of the UMDNJ-Council of Student Leaders. The main topic was funding of student events, particularly events with alcohol. Dr. William Owen, UMDNJ’s President, will be visiting NJMS on October 22nd, and Student Government President Michael Ivan, MS- IV, will raise this issue then.

Upcoming events (1) National Day of Compassion in Medicine: Tomorrow, Friday, October 19th, SOM again will commemorate the 2004 crash of Flight 5966, which caused the deaths of 13 passengers, 8 of whom were members of the osteopathic community. STUCO is coordinating a SOM-wide purchase of an OsteoPath brick ($325) in memory of the crash victims. STUCO and Class Council members will be staffing a table with a donation box and blank “thank you” cards for students to write to a friend, relative, SOM faculty member or anyone else. Please stop by tomorrow in the am or at lunch. (2) National Make a Difference Day: On Sunday, October 28th from 1-4pm, UMDNJ-RWJMS will be hosting a “Student Doctor for a Day” event for 5th to 12th graders. Registration is free, and lunch will be provided. OMS-I Gabriel Lerman, SOMA’s Preventive Medicine Chair, will be coordinating SOM’s contingent. For more info, please email him at [email protected]. (3) NJAOPS House of Delegates Meeting: On Sunday, October 28th, NJAOPS will be holding its semiannual meeting at its office in Monmouth Junction. Gwyneth will be attending this meeting and presenting her report on SOM student life to the delegates. (4) PLAN/NJ Presentation: The Planned Lifetime Assistance Network of NJ will present a training session about the services available for people living with disabilities. Speakers will be Ellen Nalven, PLAN/NJ’s Executive Director, and Goldie Ellis, former Assistant Director of the NJ Division of Developmental Disabilities. This presentation will be on Wednesday, November 7th at 6 pm in the Auditorium. (5) AOA President’s Visit: AOA President Peter B. Aljuni still is tentatively set to visit SOM on Wednesday, November 14th. More info to follow. (6) CIR Speaker: STUCO is working with the Ambassador Program of the Council of Interns & Residents (CIR) to schedule a campus visit (with slide presentation and Q&A period) by an intern or resident. Date & time still pending. (7) COSGP January Meeting: The next COSGP meeting will be January 18th to January 20th in Fort Worth, TX. (8) SOM Talent Show: The 14th Annual Talent Show is set for Saturday, January 19th (snow date: Saturday, January 26th). More info will be coming from 2nd VP Soumya Bollampally.

(B) First Vice President: (1) There has been an issue regarding cleaning of the student lounge. A suggestion has been made that clubs who do not participate in cleaning the lounge when they are supposed to will have their privilege of reserving rooms on campus revoked. A policy regarding this issue may be proposed in the year- end report. (2) Rosemarie Robledo and Student Affairs are in still in the process of updating club status for each club on campus. (3) More details about the Chapter of the Year Award will be announced.

(C) Second Vice President: (1) Soumya Bollampally would like to announce that the Talent Show will be held on January 19, 2008, in the auditorium in the Academic Center. Snow date will be January 26, 2008. Any SOMers interested in participating in the planning and execution of this event should contact Soumya at [email protected]. She will send out an e-mail shortly about a committee. (2) Plans for Medicine Ball are in the works. Details to follow.

(D) Treasurer: (1) No report submitted.

(E) Secretary: (1) The deadline for submitted necessary documents for funding requests and items to be placed on the agenda remains firmly held at 3:00 p.m. on the Sunday before that particular month’s STUCO meeting. (2) Any items submitted after this deadline will be pushed to the next month’s meeting. (3) Rachel Schatz will not be in attendance at the November STUCO meeting. All funding requests and requests to be put on the agenda must be forwarded to 2nd VP Soumya Bollampally at [email protected]. The above deadline still firmly holds, and no exceptions will be made by either Rachel or Soumya.

V. Class Reports:

(A) 2008 (1) The Class of 2008 finds itself in the 4th week of the 5th block of our 4th year. We are perhaps at the busiest time of year. By now most people have submitted their ERAS applications and are already being invited for interviews. Dean’s letters were recently uploaded all last week. Boards Boot Camp Course was completed last month and many have scheduled their boards for this month. We are the first class of which it is required to pass COMLEX Step 2 to graduate, so there is even more pressure to perform well. There were no class events scheduled this month due to the hectic atmosphere.

(B) 2009 (1) Complete projects (a) Class of 2009 Website/Forum for information on books to use, funny experiences, pimping questions, first day of rotations, etc. (b) Class Bar-B-Que was a great success and very much fun. (2) Future projects (a) A list of elective sites for each rotation with advice from upper classmen on elective rotations is in the works. (b) Upcoming social events include a hayride and fishing trip. Details to follow.

(C) 2010 (1) The Class of 2010 has been busy this month. They survived their first module and are preparing for the pulmonary module at the end of the month. (2) Class members had an exciting trip to San Diego to attend the AOA, SOMA, and ACOEP conventions. SOIMA just returned from Boston, MA, for the ACOI convention, and SOSA looks forward to the ACOS convention this weekend in San Francisco. (3) The Class of 2010 just completed the SOMA/Class of 2010 Boards Prep Week featuring panels of 3rd year students and presentations by Jackie Giacobbe and Kaplan Medical. (4) The class of 2010 looks forward to a possible Halloween party; details will be announced. We are also making preparations for our Annual Thanksgiving Pot- Luck Lunch. (5) 2009 looks forward to the exam-free month of November and the upcoming visit by AOA President Dr. Aljuni.

(D) 2011 (1) Second exam block is on the week of October 22-26. The class council intends to provide snacks and food during the week for the hardworking masses. (2) The Class of 2011 has been actively involved by participating and leading in nearly all clubs/organizations, as evidenced by their widely visible presence and ongoing commitments in events and projects. (3) The Class of 2011 suffers from attendance issues at their own sponsored events, and may be forced to curtail or cancel future planned items. Current and near future planned events, most which are class council subsidized, include Halloween pumpkin picking (Sunday, October 14th), Halloween trip to Eastern State Penitentiary (Friday, October 26th), and Halloween costume contest (Wednesday, October 31st). All UMDNJ-SOM classes, faculty, and UMDNJ graduate students have been or will be invited. (4) The Class of 2011 is planning various events with the Class of 2010 (and other classes). The next upcoming event is the Halloween party, Saturday, November 3rd. Future events may include a ski trip and Holiday/end-of-the-year party. (5) The Class of 2011 has purchased a booth for this year’s Student/Alumni Carnival on Tuesday, October 30th. The booth's theme is to be announced, but will most likely involve yummy pies being worn. (6) Daily announcements are now displayed on the televisions in the first year classrooms. All clubs, councils, and organizations have been/will be advised and recommended to use this as a supplemental medium for announcing all their news and information. It is hoped that this will curtail e-mail "spam" and impromptu in-class announcements. (7) The Class of 2011 now has an "UMDNJ-SOM 2011" group at the UMDNJ portal (my.umdnj.edu). Everything school and Class of 2011 related will be posted here. (8) The Scribe team is working with Media Services and IST on integrating the audio lectures with the PowerPoints into a video format. The demand for the scribe services (i.e. audio lectures) has been consistent, but support in recording and posting them have been limited. (9) DO United, the first-year UMDNJ-SOM indoor soccer team, has improved in their season, and is shaping up to be title contenders. Their games are every Friday night in Voorhees (YSA on Preston Road), usually before the second/third-year UMDNJ-SOM team game.

VI. Committee Reports:

(A) Curriculum: (1) The new curriculum for the first year has been further refined, reducing in-class time to about 25 hours per week. Dr. Griesback and Dr. White will present the new curriculum status to Dean Cavalieri at the end of this month. The second year new curriculum development is in progress. The new curriculum represents a substantive change that requires COCA approval, but COCA will not be able to act on the curriculum proposal until the Middle States probationary period has ended. The hope is the new curriculum will be implemented for the graduating class of 2013. (2) IST has renewed the UMDNJ WebCT site license through June 2009. IST is considering bids from three other vendors to comply with UMDNJ vendor/bid policy. (3) Dr. Kimmelman’s office has made every effort to schedule first and second year exams for this academic year outside date ranges for major osteopathic medical conferences, including AOA, AAO, and others. (4) Dr. Filipetto discussed potential changes to the SOM preceptorship program to be implemented as early as next year. SOM’s expanding class size and increasing family practice obligations has made it harder to find preceptors with sufficient evening hours to accommodate first and second year students. Ideas to maintain the program and maximize student clinical education include allowing second year students to fulfill their preceptorship hours in a hospital (i.e. weekend rounds) or specialty settings. This issue will receive further discussion.

(B) Student Affairs: (1) The annual SOM Halloween Party will be held at Stonington Court Apartments clubhouse on November 3rd.

(C) Alumni Affairs: (1) The book proposal outlining a plan to give Maxwell books to upcoming third

year students is on the verge of approval pending one vote from the Alumni, which is expected to be of approval. (2) The Alumni Phone-a-thon on October 7th was a great success. Thank you to all that participated. (3) Opportunities for the Mentorship Program will be determined as discussions continue with Dr. Pedowitz, who is helping the development of this program.

(D) Public Relations: (1) Alexis Davison will be meeting with webmaster Ravish Amin on Monday, October 22nd, to discuss further changes to the STUCO website, which should be updated by Thursday, October 25th. (2) The STUCO bulletin board was posted next to the mailboxes near the administrative offices on the second floor of the Academic Center. Although some photographs of STUCO members are missing, please stop by and meet your STUCO. (3) Alexis will be going to Ramapo College on Thursday, October 25th with SOM admissions officers to recruit new students for next year’s first-year class.

VII. Club Affairs: (A) Please refer to Section IV.B.1. regarding the lounge cleaning issue.

VIII. Old Business: (A) The amendment regarding the Honor Code Representative as a non-voting member of STUCO (presented by Juli Wysocki) was unanimously approved. (B) The amendment regarding TOUCH as a new Standing Committee was presented by Heather Abe. The amendment to make the chair of the committee as a part of STUCO with the responsibility to approve community service hours was unanimously approved. The TOUCH committee will meet in December 2007 and July 2008. (C) Budget Policies and Procedures: The request to reconsider the proposal for changes to grant procedures and voting was tabled until the November STUCO meeting.

IX. New Business (A) Funding Requests (1) Ryan Smith as proxy for Kate Whitehouse and Parita Sahani requested travel funding reimbursement for the latter two students’ representation of SOM’s OB/GYN club at the national ACOOG conference in late September. STUCO awarded a total of $200 to Kate and Parita, $100 each. (2) Alyssa Rubinstein submitted an Alumni grant proposal for JOMA’s Healthy Snack program. Rachel Schatz and Mike Sinkoff recused themselves from voting on this issue. STUCO decided not to approve the proposal at this time because the Alumni Association may want to hear/see a more detailed budget for this project (total cost, delineated expenditures, etc.). It was also advised that JOMA find a secular elementary school at which to launch the project, as SOM cannot fund a program at a non-secular school. It was suggested that Alyssa resubmit a proposal with these changes at the November STUCO meeting. (B) Student Osteopathic Hematology and Oncology Association (SOHOA) club proposal: Kristen Spencer, Patty Ambrosio, and Elan Gorshein proposed that SOHOA be made a probationary new club at SOM. SOHOA will bring in lecturers on related fields to hematology and oncology, have seminars on stem cell research, participate in community service events/charity walks, and will hold other educated events. One hundred thirty-five people signed the petition for interest/support of SOHOA. STUCO unanimously approved SOHOA as a probationary club, and the club will be eligible for active status in two years (October 2009). The club’s first event will be the Brain Tumor Walk for research funding at November 4th. Please contact the above students if you would like to participate with SOHOA at this event.

X. Motion to adjourn (A) The meeting was adjourned at 9:37 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Rachel Schatz

STUCO Secretary