The FAMU Board of Trustees unanimously approved a detailed proposal to offer a Doctor of Dental Medicine degree at FAMU. This proposal now goes before the Florida Board of Governors for consideration.The proposal addresses the need for a new college of dental medicine in Florida and addresses the disparities regarding access to dental services, workforce diversity, dental education models, including operating and capital costs, and plans for creating a College of Dental Medicine.
Last week, the trustees heard from President James H. Ammons, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Cynthia Hughes Harris, Donald Palm, assistant vice president for Academic Affairs at FAMU, and Howard Bailit, the consultant for the project who is professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and former chair of the Department of Health Administration and Policy at Columbia University.
Bailit noted during his presentation the community-based model would place students in community clinics and in real care systems, where the students would gain more clinical experience. The faculty would teach and practice in the clinics. According to Bailit, this model is less expensive than the traditional model, where students gain experience in teaching labs.
Balit emphasized that this model will have a positive impact on providing dental services, especially in the rural communities. The proposal envisions that a large number of potential students would be from disadvantaged, low-income families, rural communities and underrepresented minorities. The proposal also addresses estimated costs of the College and potential funding opportunities.
Because of its innovative, community-based clinical education model, the College of Dental Medicine will require much less State support than traditional schools. An annual operating subsidy of about $10.3M will be needed. This is substantially less than state support for dental schools of this size nationally and in Florida.
The next step in the approval process is the submission of the proposal to the Florida Board of Governors at its next meeting in September 2011.