Open letter from a board member of TCOM alumni association

The following is an open letter to TCOM alumni and Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine:

UNT Health Science Center leaderships have been planning to start up an allopathic medical school on campus for the past two years. The stated reasons for supporting of such a plan include the prestige of an MD school, potential of increase in research funding and clinical rotation sites.

Like on any issues, there are members in the same family who support, those who oppose, and those remain neutral.

Prominent Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (Updated 2/1/2011)

A number of notable physicians in the United States trained as DO s, who represent only 7% of physician workforce. These individuals have managed government public health programs, served in the Armed Forces, educated the public through media appearances, treated professional athletes, and advanced medical research, among other accomplishments. These individuals, organized by category, include¹:

Government & Military

Rear Admiral Clinton E. Adams, DO, MC, USN—Achieved rank of Rear Admiral in the United States Navy. Upon retirement, he joined Western University of Health Sciences as the Dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific.

UNTHSC president’s compensation outpaces peers

Administrative ranks have grown in recent years

The recession and its aftermath have left hundreds of thousands of families struggling to do more with fewer financial resources. People around the United States have cut their household budgets, postponed retirement, and cut non-essential purchases in order to stay afloat in the worst economy in decades. Higher education, though, often follows a different path. Instead of demanding shared sacrifices from administrators and faculty members, academic salaries have continued their upward trajectory in recent years.

As Dallas Morning News reporter Holly Hacker observed in a May 17, 2010 posting for the paper’s Education Front blog¹, “[P]ublic university salaries at all levels have been on a steep upward trend line in Texas and nationally -- the average salary has nearly doubled since 1994 -- and that coincides, not surprisingly, with a sharp increase in tuition.” The increase in tuition has also resulted from reduced state-level financial support for education across the country as state budgets have been squeezed ever tighter because of tax revenue shortfalls. With Texas facing an $18-21 billion budget shortfall for FY 2012-2013, pressure for tuition increases could build in the coming years.

Teaching English in China

The following is another guest post by Yveline Van Anh 

McDonalds in Beijing

Driving around the roads of Shunyi, Beijing, one would never imagine such things as 10 families sharing a common bathroom or houses without heating and air conditioning. Most of the people I meet here are blinded by the newly opened McDonald’s, Starbucks and modern westernized villa houses which render them oblivious to the fact that just five minutes from their three story houses lie small villages in which entire families live in a single room no bigger than their living room.

United We Stand, Divided We Fail as a Profession

The University Of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) is a state sponsored-institution with the legislative stipulation that the president of UNTHSC be a D.O. The state recognizes that UNTHSC is first and foremost an osteopathic entity even though it is comprised of Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (TCOM), the Department of Physician Assistant Studies, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the School of Public Health and the School of Health Professions.

TCOM

TCOM has been an exemplary model in its contributions to the care of Texas citizens. It has been among the top 50 medical schools for primary care medicine since 2002 by U.S. News & World Report and in the Top 20 medical schools for Hispanics in 2005 and 2007 by Hispanic Business Magazine. 65 percent of its graduates specializing in primary care and 34 percent serving in small towns of fewer than 25,000 people.
Furthermore, TCOM students are as qualified as any allopathic medical students. The admitting class of 2013 has an average MCAT scores and GPAs of 29.2 and 3.63, respectively. These numbers place TCOM students equal or better than 32 other allopathic schools in the nation. Also, they earned the highest scores on Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination (COMLEX-USA) Step1 and 2 over the past two years, and ranked 2nd quartile on US Medical Licensure Examination (USMLE).