Hey, I'm a current student (M1) at Michigan Medical School. I can say that I was a bit concerned when I found out some of the deans were leaving- I think I found out a few weeks before school started (late July/early August). I even talked to the admissions people about it a little and with some M3s and M4s. Let me give some of my feedback:
Four of the school's ~15 deans decided to take positions elsewhere in individual decisions made sometime over the past 6-8 months. They made their decisions based on being recruited elsewhere, family concerns, and others. All decided to leave before any Proposal 2 decision was made, and all were deeply valued by the administration and are missed. Almost all have been replaced by interim and/or fully instituted new deans. The deans who left are:
Lichter (former Dean of Medical School)-to become President and CEO of American Society of Clinical Oncology (the worlds largest organization of physicians treating cancer). Dr. Lichter has been replaced temporarily with Interim Dean Wooliscroft.
Zink (former Associate Dean of Student Programs)-to become Chair of Emergency Medicine at Brown. Associate Dean Petty has replaced him.
Hammoud (former Assistant Dean of Student Programs)-to become Associate Dean of Cornell Medical School in Qatar. Dr. Petty is leading a search for a replacement.
Remick (former Dean of Admissions)-to become Chair of Pathology at Boston U School of Medicine. Dean Gay has replaced him.
My understanding is that all of the replacement/interim deans have been involved with education at Michigan for many years, and my first-hand experience with them since they took office is that they are very capable, dedicated administrators. The administration feels that, while the loss is still a loss, the fact that the faculty have moved on to such powerful positions speaks to the leadership present at Michigan.
And finally, from the student's point of view: Little (if anything) has changed, and I doubt anything has been negatively affected. The administrators most associated with medical education (like the Dean of Medical Education
) are still around, and below them we have the component (M1, M2, etc.) directors, and below them we have the course directors, and below them we have individual faculty... Students only really interact with the course directors and teaching faculty, so we don't have any appreciable change in the education we are receiving. The new Deans, as they become situated, will likely develop their own programs and directions for the school that will hopefully (and most likely) be positive, but won't seriously affect our lives as students or our outcome when we graduate.
PM me if you have more questions, please. Oh, and Go Blue at the Rose Bowl!