Attention current students. The fight is not over..you may be moving to Rowan, but that doesn't mean your education HAS to be sub-par to that of Cooper.
Here is the faculty page for Cooper's new medical school:
http://www.rowan.edu/coopermed/faculty/departments/
Almost each department has at least a DO on their faculty.
That being said, you guys should email them and voice your concerns about Rowan acquiring a DO school but not being able to potentially maintain its clinical affiliations, etc., or being able to run it.
They are DO's...they understand where you may be coming from and perhaps they may help and bring the attention to Cooper administration. Cooper may have more authority than Rowan in certain circumstances such as medical student affairs, and thus, may be willing to help you guys out, especially since Rowan has been getting so much terrible media attention. You guys can help each other out.
Write to them and ask them politely to make sure that you guys aren't the ugly step-child of Rowan and that you guys deserve fair treatment and ACCESS to the same
resources as Cooper students.
Do not give up the fight.
1. Here is what the Dean had to say (in general) to the anti-merger proponents:
"I want you to know what their (the legislators') thinking is. They sincerely believe there is not an appropriate amount of resources for higher education in South Jersey, they feel that Rutgers-Camden and we (SOM) have not received appropriate resources. They want to create a research university in southern New Jersey so it can emerge as a powerful research university unto itself. They recognize the value of this school, the research that is has done, the value that it has. They feel that after putting us under Rowan a powerful research university will emerge and will allow us to get resources for our school to build on the successes that we have had. Senator Sweeney (one of the prime movers of this bill), who is president of Senate, his brother is a graduate of this school and Senator Sweeney has a great respect for this school and was a strong supporter of this bill. He views that this is a positive thing. Assemblywoman Reilly, who also was a supporter of this bill, her father received the UMDNJ-medal of excellence award last year and was one of the founders of this school. There is a mindset that this will actually bring more resources to this school. I want you to see what the elected officials' thinking is."
2. Here is what the dean had to say specifically about the clinical affiliations' concern:
"Another concern was with the Cooper Medical School here in Camden and being under same umbrella, will it negatively impact or threaten available clerkships? My opinion is no, we have strong relations with Kennedy and Our Lady of Lourdes and a strong emerging relationship with South Jersey Healthcare, which just acquired Underwood Hospital in Woodbury. We have a whole network. We also started a relationship with Virtua for student rotations there. We just signed an affiliation with Southern Ocean Medical Center, and we are strengthening our relationship with North Jersey hospitals, Christ Hospital and Atlantic Health, Morristown General and Overlook. I don't see this jeopardizing clinical rotations at all. We are in great demand with hospitals to affiliate with us. It may open up some doors to rotations at Cooper and that could be a positive thing, each hospital brings opportunities of rotations, like Cooper is a major trauma center."
3a. Here are my personal comments about your concerns of SOM students getting access to the same resources as Cooper Medical students (I am assuming you are talking about core clinical rotations:
Even while SOM was under the UMDNJ umbrella, SOM never shared core rotations with either of its sister allopathic schools (NJMS & RWJMS)...so the argument that SOM students "deserve" core rotations at Cooper University Hospital just because we (Cooper Med. school and SOM) are under the Rowan umbrella doesn't hold. Let me know if I incorrectly assumed that you were referring to core rotations when you said "resources".
3b This is how the dean answered a similar concern:
Q: Is there a way to secure more rotations at Cooper Medical School in this interim period as Cooper Medical school is establishing their classes, to rotate through there, or at least have an option.
A: That is something we can look into very soon, I was on the phone with Dr. Katz and I think that is a viable possibility. There are many GME programs we don't have that Cooper does, and some of our graduates have gone to Cooper. One of the benefits out of this is more access to GME programs at Cooper. GME is a big thing; there are some programs that we simply don't have but they do.
