Greetings,

This October we celebrate the 30th anniversary of our physical therapy academic program on the UM-Flint campus and the 60th anniversary of PT at the University of Michigan (the program moved from Ann Arbor to Flint 30 years ago).  Physical Therapy is one of the many outstanding programs we offer and has a long and rich history of success.  We have excellent and successful graduates who work all over the country and I hope in the year ahead that I can meet more of them.  As we all know, the health care industry is experiencing significant growth, particularly as Baby Boomers age into retirement and require more people to administer their health care.  According to a 2012 Monster.com report, job postings for nurses, physical therapists and physician assistants rose 13% from June 2011 to June 2012, and we all expect that trend to continue.  There are many opportunities for academic program development as a result of this trend.

Now our challenge is to continue educating a growing number of highly qualified physical therapists at the DPT (Doctor of Physical Therapy) level.  This past year we were able to expand our PT class size due to the departure of UM-Ann Arbor’s television station WFUM and the redeployment of that space to PT, a very positive change for our PT program.  Our second challenge is recruiting PT faculty for the future to keep up with the demand for expanded class sizes.  To address that need (which requires many more future faculty to have Ph.D. preparation), we need to move to the next level of education of students.

Our PT program is poised for progress to that new level.  If all goes well, meaning that the Higher Learning Commission favorably reviews our degree program proposal, we will begin offering a Ph.D. completion program within the next year for students who have a DPT and wish to prepare for work as future faculty with a teaching and research agenda.  I am personally very excited about this potential, and am looking forward to working with my faculty colleagues to make this next step come to fruition. 

Please join me in expressing to our colleagues in Physical Therapy a heartfelt thank you for 30 years of great work and best wishes for a very, very bright and successful future!

Ruth J. Person
Chancellor

Compete

This year our campus has selected three individuals to participate in Leadership Genesee.  They include Dr. David Gordon, Dean, School of Health Professions & Studies (SHPS); Dr. Hiba Wehbe-Alamah, Associate Professor of Nursing (SHPS); and Sara Maynard, Director of Greek Life, Office of Student Life.  We look forward to learning more about their experiences with this leadership program.

Every year the Center for the Continuing Education of Women at UM-Ann Arbor hosts a scholarship award ceremony to honor award recipients and donors.  This year Dean David Gordon joined me in celebrating our two recipients, Tammy Flower (Nursing) and Roxanne Wing (MBA).  We were also joined by former recipient and alumna, Pamela Ehrhart, who was a volunteer at the event.  It was a wonderful celebratory event hosted in part by my long-time friend Ken Fischer, President of the University Musical Society, who announced many of the award recipients. 

Our very own Dr. Lois Alexander has been selected as the only US representative to serve on the jury of the Fourth International Competition of the Moscow Conservatory for Winds and Percussion.  What an honor both for Lois and for our university!  We look forward to hearing about her experiences.

The final numbers of MHealthy Rewards 2012 are in.  Our highest participating units for the health questionnaire are:  Student Affairs (72%), Provost’s Office (63%), Business and Finance (57%), and Flint Chancellor’s Office (50%).  Keep up the good work!

Convene

We recently held “graduation” for our first cohort of LEAD participants.  For the last six months, these faculty and staff members have been working together in this leadership development program.  Fourteen individuals concluded this intensive leadership program with a day-long session with the executive officers and program staff (some future activities are still on the calendar for follow up).  The projects presented by the group were well-constructed and carefully researched, and reflected a great deal of thought and collaboration.  We were all very impressed!

This year we held our fourth annual Greek Picnic at Ross House on a beautiful Fall afternoon.  George Hakim, Facilities & Operations Director (far left), joins us as a new Greek adviser, and we thank him for his service. 

                                                                      Fourth Annual Greek Picnic

We were joined this year by some of the members of our newest fraternity, Alpha Sigma Phi.  We are so pleased to welcome them to our campus, and wish them success in recruiting new members.  They are a great addition to our Greek system, and they even sent me a handwritten thank you note!  Keep up the good work, gentlemen.

Connect

In late September, our Department of Public Safety and our Student Government co-sponsored “Touch-A-Truck,” an event at which all kinds of vehicles from safety, law enforcement, construction and utility companies, and local and state government assembled on our north parking lots to be viewed by the public.  This was a great “kids” event with free food, a “Bounce House,” face painting, and child ID kits.  More than 1,000 people attended this event, all on a beautiful summer-like afternoon.  Volunteers from a variety of law enforcement agencies, as well as many many campus employees and students staffed the event and made sure all went well.  A highlight of the event was the UMHS Survival Flight helicopter touching down for a 3-hour visit, a truly “Go Blue” moment!  A short photo montage is available at http://video214.com/play/QmPLz4pAwasYQKB5ndLI1g/s/dark.

Here is a comment from one attendee that really sums up the day better than I could:

“I would like to thank the Public Safety Department and Student Government for sponsoring the “Touch-A-Truck” exhibit on Saturday, September 29th.  I am a teacher at Durant-Tuuri-Mott and sent the flyers home with my students.  My husband and I brought our 2 grandsons, ages 1 and 3.  We all had a very enjoyable afternoon.  The selection of vehicles, professionals, food, play area and fingerprinting were all wonderful.  We need more events like this in Genesee County.  Thanks again for helping to provide this awesome event for children in our area.” 

A number of UM-Flint faculty and staff have been selected to participate in the City of Flint Master Planning process, and we thank them all for their contributions in helping us to connect with our city:

Donna Fry, Associate Dean, SHPS
Elizabeth Collardey, Dept of Social Work, SEHS
Victoria Morckel, Dept of Earth and Resource Science, CAS
Mehrdad Simkani, Dept of Mathematics, CAS
Nallapu Reddy, Dept of Economics, CAS
Gergana Kodjebacheva, Public Health & Health Sciences, SHPS
Richard Hill-Rowley, Dept of Earth and Resource Science, CAS

On My Calendar