Omicron Kappa Upsilon
Bulletin
| Supreme Chapter Volume XXXVII October 2002 |
Incoming President's Message
by Dr. Judith
Buchanan
It is my pleasure to have the opportunity to thank Dr. Delahanty for his service this past year as our president. His accomplishments are nothing short of remarkable. During Dr. Delahanty’s time on the OKU Supreme Chapter Board, he has been the editor of the bulletin and he has put the bulletin and report forms on the web. He developed the idea of a $15,000 research grant for new faculty along with the mechanism to fund this initiative. He worked tirelessly on the lottery concept and is responsible for our new OKU Supreme chapter banner. He has also been a major player in his local chapter, a chapter that has won our national chapter award and is a great example of what can be accomplished at a local level. I personally have a true admiration and respect for the work that Dr. Delahanty has done this past year. The energy he gave to the board is unmatched and will be very hard to follow. It is my honor to present this token of our appreciation for his role as president of the Supreme Chapter of OKU for the 2001-2002 year.
It is a great honor to become the President of Omicron Kappa Upsilon Supreme Chapter. I was one of those students who knew about OKU before starting dental school and from the first day of classes, I had as a goal to be qualified for OKU membership. I have always viewed the OKU organization with a great deal of respect and fully supported its goals and ideals. When I was elected to OKU my senior year, I felt a great deal of pride in joining the caliber of faculty that were members of OKU both at my dental school and at others. Since that time I have tried to play an active role in every chapter to which I have had the privilege of being associated. I hope that as President of the Supreme Chapter of OKU, I will be able to contribute in some additional way, along with the very capable board present.
Looking at dental education today, I see several areas where OKU can show its leadership ability. We are facing a shortage of qualified faculty and Dr. Delahanty’s proposal for a research grant for new faculty will help in supporting new faculty that schools are able to recruit. I hope we can find further innovative ways to help in this area and continue Dr. Delahanty’s good start.
As
I look at our student body at PENN, though, I am concerned about another issue.
Our University as well as many others across the nation is increasingly
worried about the mental health of our students.
At Penn, the need for mental health counseling has been increasing at an
alarming rate over the past two years with an understandable jump after Sept.
11.
Dental student visits last year alone to our central counseling center
was just shy of 1400, and this is not including visits to our dental school
social worker. Data from our campus on all academic units show that dental
students are the highest of all 14 student bodies on campus in surveys that ask
if they feel sick, tired, stressed out or in pain, if they are concerned about
diet, weight or level of exercise, or if they feel sad, depressed, lonely or
hopeless. At least several major universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Penn,
find that they are not adequately equipped to meet these increased needs,
especially given the events of this past year and the uncertainty of the future.
If our organization wants to support scholarship and leadership abilities
of our dental students, then perhaps we need to show leadership in the area of
supporting good mental health of our dental students. I feel that by doing so,
we will allow students to better focus on the scholarship and character that has
always been the main consideration of our organization.
As we all know, dental school and the dental profession can be associated
with high levels of stress.
I would like to encourage our organization both at the Supreme chapter
level, and at the local chapters to consider ways to address this issue by
supporting programs on stress management and improving the mental health of our
students and faculty.
I would welcome suggestions and ideas from any member or chapter in ways
that our organization can contribute during this year and perhaps make this a
focus of a symposium for next year’s meeting.
