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I am a 4th year dental student at OHSU and would like to give all of the prospective dental students a little bit of sight into this university.
We recently got a new dean (3rd dean for us in 4 years). Phillip Marucha. He comes to us from University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry where he was the associate dean for research and director of graduate studies. He graduated from University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine. He is a periodontist and a Ph.D. in immunology. He's an east coaster. Now there is nothing wrong with being an east coaster, but I think we will all admit that there is a difference in philosophy of teaching/learning/leading between the two coasts. It has always been my opinion that OHSU has a reputation for making strong clinicians. And I am afraid this will not be the case in the future.
The dean is cutting way back on clinical training and instead focusing on academic dentistry. Last year our first year class never learned how to cut a crown prep. There will be no more casting projects as they did not move the casting equipment to the new school. A first year student told me that in a meeting with the dean and her entire class she asked what he would be doing to to protect the clinical reputation of the school with all of the cut backs on clinical training and his response was "Do you want to get good grades or do you want to be good at making Jewelry?" I wasn't there for this but the girl who asked the question relayed this story to me.
The dean is very poor communicator and to the dental students and faculty that I have talked to it seems that the only things he's interested in are research and statistics of the school. Last year 10 of the 4th years failed NBDE Part II. What the students in that class told me is that they (like the people the years before them) focused on studying the old released exams and last year the people who write the test changed it up, and they got burned. These things happen. So the new dean comes to the school, sees the bad numbers and decides to take unilateral action. He purchases the services of a group of people who administer a mock test. We as a class asked to take the exam before our 7 week summer break so that we could take actual boards over the break. He said that was not going to happen. He asked him to reconsider, he said he would and then back back later and said no (this was the beginning of a trend with him). He also told us that we would have the scores back after a couple of days, a week at the most.
The dean says we have to wait to pass mock boards in order to be "green lighted" to schedule actual boards. People are not happy about having to study for mock boards, then spend a month or more applying to take, and then scheduling and taking the exam. So he compromises and says he will "green light" the top 50% by class rank to schedule for after the mock boards because statistically they have a history of passing on the first try. This divides the class a little. And by class rank I am in the bottom 50%. I will remind all of you predoc students that every single dental school has a top 50% and a bottom 50%. So we got to study over break and then take this "mock test" the first week of school. I heard that we could schedule without the deans approval and I schedule my exam for 8 days after the mock. Should be plenty of time according to the dean.
We get back to school, take the mock boards, and the dean drops this little gem on us. If we are in the bottom 50%, and take the actual boards before our mock scores are given to us, the dean will bring us up on charges of professional misconduct and unethical actions. He says there will be a dismissal hearing. This guy is unrelenting. The mock test rep also lets us know that they have 12 business days to report our scores. Awesome. People in our class are very angry at this point about a lot of things. We as a class draft the following letter and deliver it to the dean, his boss, and a few administrators:
_______________________________________________________
Dean Marucha:
First, we, the Class of 2015, would like to acknowledge the effort required to fulfill your position as dean of OHSU School of Dentistry. We are aware that your responsibilities require you to meet the needs of multiple organizational bodies while managing curriculum, personnel, and finances. We respect your position as dean and are looking forward to the continuation of good relations between the Office of the Dean and the student body at OHSU.
However, we would like to express our great dissatisfaction with your handling of multiple administrative issues up to this point. We feel as though an unacceptable amount of communications between you and our student body have been lacking in accuracy, timeliness, and ultimately empathy.
Accuracy. There have been two instances to this date in which information relayed to us, by you as fact have been purely incorrect. First with the attempted forced return of student-purchased issue, and secondly with registration for the NBDE Part II. For example, we were aware that registration for NBDE Part II through the ADA requires successful completion of NBDE Part I. As a result, we feel you did a great disservice by exerting that we would not be able to register for the NBDE Part II with your stipulations. The inconsistency between fact and administrative requests has led many of us to feel distrustful of your office.
Timeliness. We were told in May 2014 that we could schedule our NBDE Part II exam in mid-August. However, we were notified only yesterday of the 12-day delay between the Mock and NBDE. Nearly two-dozen of us have already scheduled NBDE II inside of that time frame. Rescheduling at this point is financially prohibitive for students who are already struggling to pay $2515 for the WREB by September 29th. We feel it is unacceptable for us to shoulder a financial burden that could simply have been prevented by more timely communication.
Empathy. Multiple times this past year, changes within OHSU have been presented to us in an authoritarian manner. For this, we cite the genesis of Mock Boards, registration for NBDE Part II, absorbing of our dispensary funds, and yesterday’s communications. We are particularly shocked by yesterday’s threat of professional conduct breach and dismissal in order to enforce an administrative decision. As professionals and colleagues, we resist “Because I said so,” as an answer for decisions that greatly affect our professional and personal lives and feel that threats are unprofessional and disrespectful. Ultimately, this authoritarian communication along with yesterday’s threat have left us feeling as though you do not have our best interests at heart and do not care for us as your students.
As such, along with being given the opportunity to voice our complaint, we have the following requests:
1) Members of our student government represent our student body. These individuals are elected with care and are our liaisons to your office. We would ask that you would keep your commitment to consult with our student leaders more in the future especially on issues involving finances outside of our tuition & fees. Much of this discord could have been avoided if we had been able to understand decisions before they were made. We are not claiming to always agree, but would like to facilitate an environment of understanding and respect.
2) Be more accurate. We understand that mistakes happen. However, taking a little more time to check facts and realities will help to improve trust and minimize confusions and miscommunications.
3) Be more up front. If you are going to implement a major change, please provide us with as many details as possible on how this change can affect our professional and academic futures. In return, we will do our best to be flexible should unexpected changes arise.
4) Allow us to take NDBE II at our convenience. This is the first year for Mock Boards. It is to be expected that there will be mishaps. We ask that your office shoulder responsibility for the miscommunications. In return we will do our best to study sufficiently and represent the school to the best of our ability with NDBE II.
Again, thank you so much for all that you do for this school and for the many many things that you have done well. As this is a time sensitive issue, we would appreciate a response as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
OHSU School of Dentistry Class of 2015
_______________________________________________________
58 of the 77 people in our class sign. The dean is angry and responds with the following message:
_______________________________________________________
Dean Colleagues,
We understand that many of you are stressed regarding the circumstances of the timing of NBDE part II. It is an important milepost for you. The school has had an exceptionally poor record of passing over the past 5 years. In order to improve the pass rate and to assure all students have the resources to pass, we have instituted a mock exam process. You have just completed the first part. This exam is in part to help reduce your stress for the real exam by familiarizing you with questions on the board and part to identify students at risk for not passing. From a historical perspective students at the top half of the class have a high likelihood of passing therefore, in April we allowed students to sign up for a time to take the exam. Those students in the top half of the class that have signed up and feel comfortable with their knowledge may go ahead and take the exam before we know the results on the mock boards. Students in the bottom half of the class must wait to take the NBDE until we have their results even if you are currently schedule before we get the results (you may have to reschedule). We expect that they will arrive sometime next week. If you passed the mock board, you can take the exam as soon as you are ready. If you fail the mock exam, you must go through a remediation process that will start early in September. We expect to complete that in approximately 6 weeks not including your break. This will give you the best chance of passing the exam. We hope this will result in all students earning a first time pass. If your scheduled date does not comply with this schedule you will have to modify your scheduled date. This is the process we outlined last spring. Thank you for your cooperation. Good Luck!
Sincerely,
Phillip T. Marucha, DMD, PhD
Dean
_______________________________________________________
That was sent out on 08/14/2014. Many of us are scheduled to take the exam more than a week later, including me on 08/25/2014. The prometric testing center says there is a $100 rescheduling fee if you are between 1-4 business days before your exam. Last night (Friday) at 9:06PM (leaving me no business days left) I get an email. The dean tells us that he tried to get our scores before we're scheduled to take the exam. He called the company at 2pm PST (3pm CST) and asked for our scores. The company told him that there was a "software glitch" and that they couldn't get us our scores. So us bottom 50%ers need to reschedule. All of this communication is going through the associate dean who is the nicest guy. So I tell him, at this point it's not a $100 rescheduling fee. We have to eat the $455 that we paid and reapply and repay the full amount. He says he'll ask the dean. We get this email in response:
_______________________________________________________
All,
Unfortunately we have not yet received Mock Board Part II results from Dental Educational Consultants, the consulting firm who owns and administered last week’s Mock Board Part II exam. We specifically asked for your scores today hoping that they would be able to provide us with your raw scores resulting in your approval to proceed with taking Part II as scheduled. Unfortunately our consultants were unable to provide us with your scores. As a result we are adhering to the policy that was clarified during Wednesday’s meeting with the Dean that applies to the bottom 50% of the class and request the you reschedule your exam until we receive Mock Part II results.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
________________________________________________________
I'm not against taking a mock boards, a lot of schools do this. We hadn't been doing that at OHSU, but that's fine. We can do that, but could have been done in a better way instead of the new dean rushing in and making a lot of changes and snap decisions without getting the lay of the land. He screwed this process up for us. He says it will be better for next years students. I doubt it.
The advice I'm giving all of you predocs is, seriously consider what is happening with the OHSU dental school, and the dean. Consider another school. I understand that your heart might be set on OHSU, and I'm sure they'll fill the class. But if you do attend OHSU, it will be a much harder road than it needs to be for you and I would advise you not to come here.
We recently got a new dean (3rd dean for us in 4 years). Phillip Marucha. He comes to us from University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry where he was the associate dean for research and director of graduate studies. He graduated from University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine. He is a periodontist and a Ph.D. in immunology. He's an east coaster. Now there is nothing wrong with being an east coaster, but I think we will all admit that there is a difference in philosophy of teaching/learning/leading between the two coasts. It has always been my opinion that OHSU has a reputation for making strong clinicians. And I am afraid this will not be the case in the future.
The dean is cutting way back on clinical training and instead focusing on academic dentistry. Last year our first year class never learned how to cut a crown prep. There will be no more casting projects as they did not move the casting equipment to the new school. A first year student told me that in a meeting with the dean and her entire class she asked what he would be doing to to protect the clinical reputation of the school with all of the cut backs on clinical training and his response was "Do you want to get good grades or do you want to be good at making Jewelry?" I wasn't there for this but the girl who asked the question relayed this story to me.
The dean is very poor communicator and to the dental students and faculty that I have talked to it seems that the only things he's interested in are research and statistics of the school. Last year 10 of the 4th years failed NBDE Part II. What the students in that class told me is that they (like the people the years before them) focused on studying the old released exams and last year the people who write the test changed it up, and they got burned. These things happen. So the new dean comes to the school, sees the bad numbers and decides to take unilateral action. He purchases the services of a group of people who administer a mock test. We as a class asked to take the exam before our 7 week summer break so that we could take actual boards over the break. He said that was not going to happen. He asked him to reconsider, he said he would and then back back later and said no (this was the beginning of a trend with him). He also told us that we would have the scores back after a couple of days, a week at the most.
The dean says we have to wait to pass mock boards in order to be "green lighted" to schedule actual boards. People are not happy about having to study for mock boards, then spend a month or more applying to take, and then scheduling and taking the exam. So he compromises and says he will "green light" the top 50% by class rank to schedule for after the mock boards because statistically they have a history of passing on the first try. This divides the class a little. And by class rank I am in the bottom 50%. I will remind all of you predoc students that every single dental school has a top 50% and a bottom 50%. So we got to study over break and then take this "mock test" the first week of school. I heard that we could schedule without the deans approval and I schedule my exam for 8 days after the mock. Should be plenty of time according to the dean.
We get back to school, take the mock boards, and the dean drops this little gem on us. If we are in the bottom 50%, and take the actual boards before our mock scores are given to us, the dean will bring us up on charges of professional misconduct and unethical actions. He says there will be a dismissal hearing. This guy is unrelenting. The mock test rep also lets us know that they have 12 business days to report our scores. Awesome. People in our class are very angry at this point about a lot of things. We as a class draft the following letter and deliver it to the dean, his boss, and a few administrators:
_______________________________________________________
Dean Marucha:
First, we, the Class of 2015, would like to acknowledge the effort required to fulfill your position as dean of OHSU School of Dentistry. We are aware that your responsibilities require you to meet the needs of multiple organizational bodies while managing curriculum, personnel, and finances. We respect your position as dean and are looking forward to the continuation of good relations between the Office of the Dean and the student body at OHSU.
However, we would like to express our great dissatisfaction with your handling of multiple administrative issues up to this point. We feel as though an unacceptable amount of communications between you and our student body have been lacking in accuracy, timeliness, and ultimately empathy.
Accuracy. There have been two instances to this date in which information relayed to us, by you as fact have been purely incorrect. First with the attempted forced return of student-purchased issue, and secondly with registration for the NBDE Part II. For example, we were aware that registration for NBDE Part II through the ADA requires successful completion of NBDE Part I. As a result, we feel you did a great disservice by exerting that we would not be able to register for the NBDE Part II with your stipulations. The inconsistency between fact and administrative requests has led many of us to feel distrustful of your office.
Timeliness. We were told in May 2014 that we could schedule our NBDE Part II exam in mid-August. However, we were notified only yesterday of the 12-day delay between the Mock and NBDE. Nearly two-dozen of us have already scheduled NBDE II inside of that time frame. Rescheduling at this point is financially prohibitive for students who are already struggling to pay $2515 for the WREB by September 29th. We feel it is unacceptable for us to shoulder a financial burden that could simply have been prevented by more timely communication.
Empathy. Multiple times this past year, changes within OHSU have been presented to us in an authoritarian manner. For this, we cite the genesis of Mock Boards, registration for NBDE Part II, absorbing of our dispensary funds, and yesterday’s communications. We are particularly shocked by yesterday’s threat of professional conduct breach and dismissal in order to enforce an administrative decision. As professionals and colleagues, we resist “Because I said so,” as an answer for decisions that greatly affect our professional and personal lives and feel that threats are unprofessional and disrespectful. Ultimately, this authoritarian communication along with yesterday’s threat have left us feeling as though you do not have our best interests at heart and do not care for us as your students.
As such, along with being given the opportunity to voice our complaint, we have the following requests:
1) Members of our student government represent our student body. These individuals are elected with care and are our liaisons to your office. We would ask that you would keep your commitment to consult with our student leaders more in the future especially on issues involving finances outside of our tuition & fees. Much of this discord could have been avoided if we had been able to understand decisions before they were made. We are not claiming to always agree, but would like to facilitate an environment of understanding and respect.
2) Be more accurate. We understand that mistakes happen. However, taking a little more time to check facts and realities will help to improve trust and minimize confusions and miscommunications.
3) Be more up front. If you are going to implement a major change, please provide us with as many details as possible on how this change can affect our professional and academic futures. In return, we will do our best to be flexible should unexpected changes arise.
4) Allow us to take NDBE II at our convenience. This is the first year for Mock Boards. It is to be expected that there will be mishaps. We ask that your office shoulder responsibility for the miscommunications. In return we will do our best to study sufficiently and represent the school to the best of our ability with NDBE II.
Again, thank you so much for all that you do for this school and for the many many things that you have done well. As this is a time sensitive issue, we would appreciate a response as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
OHSU School of Dentistry Class of 2015
_______________________________________________________
58 of the 77 people in our class sign. The dean is angry and responds with the following message:
_______________________________________________________
Dean Colleagues,
We understand that many of you are stressed regarding the circumstances of the timing of NBDE part II. It is an important milepost for you. The school has had an exceptionally poor record of passing over the past 5 years. In order to improve the pass rate and to assure all students have the resources to pass, we have instituted a mock exam process. You have just completed the first part. This exam is in part to help reduce your stress for the real exam by familiarizing you with questions on the board and part to identify students at risk for not passing. From a historical perspective students at the top half of the class have a high likelihood of passing therefore, in April we allowed students to sign up for a time to take the exam. Those students in the top half of the class that have signed up and feel comfortable with their knowledge may go ahead and take the exam before we know the results on the mock boards. Students in the bottom half of the class must wait to take the NBDE until we have their results even if you are currently schedule before we get the results (you may have to reschedule). We expect that they will arrive sometime next week. If you passed the mock board, you can take the exam as soon as you are ready. If you fail the mock exam, you must go through a remediation process that will start early in September. We expect to complete that in approximately 6 weeks not including your break. This will give you the best chance of passing the exam. We hope this will result in all students earning a first time pass. If your scheduled date does not comply with this schedule you will have to modify your scheduled date. This is the process we outlined last spring. Thank you for your cooperation. Good Luck!
Sincerely,
Phillip T. Marucha, DMD, PhD
Dean
_______________________________________________________
That was sent out on 08/14/2014. Many of us are scheduled to take the exam more than a week later, including me on 08/25/2014. The prometric testing center says there is a $100 rescheduling fee if you are between 1-4 business days before your exam. Last night (Friday) at 9:06PM (leaving me no business days left) I get an email. The dean tells us that he tried to get our scores before we're scheduled to take the exam. He called the company at 2pm PST (3pm CST) and asked for our scores. The company told him that there was a "software glitch" and that they couldn't get us our scores. So us bottom 50%ers need to reschedule. All of this communication is going through the associate dean who is the nicest guy. So I tell him, at this point it's not a $100 rescheduling fee. We have to eat the $455 that we paid and reapply and repay the full amount. He says he'll ask the dean. We get this email in response:
_______________________________________________________
All,
Unfortunately we have not yet received Mock Board Part II results from Dental Educational Consultants, the consulting firm who owns and administered last week’s Mock Board Part II exam. We specifically asked for your scores today hoping that they would be able to provide us with your raw scores resulting in your approval to proceed with taking Part II as scheduled. Unfortunately our consultants were unable to provide us with your scores. As a result we are adhering to the policy that was clarified during Wednesday’s meeting with the Dean that applies to the bottom 50% of the class and request the you reschedule your exam until we receive Mock Part II results.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
________________________________________________________
I'm not against taking a mock boards, a lot of schools do this. We hadn't been doing that at OHSU, but that's fine. We can do that, but could have been done in a better way instead of the new dean rushing in and making a lot of changes and snap decisions without getting the lay of the land. He screwed this process up for us. He says it will be better for next years students. I doubt it.
The advice I'm giving all of you predocs is, seriously consider what is happening with the OHSU dental school, and the dean. Consider another school. I understand that your heart might be set on OHSU, and I'm sure they'll fill the class. But if you do attend OHSU, it will be a much harder road than it needs to be for you and I would advise you not to come here.
