School year off to a great start

Orientation

We welcomed new students August 18th with a rousing orientation, organized by Assistant Dean Felicia Mebane, and her team. I spoke briefly, welcoming new students to the School of Public Health, noting that they have chosen a wonderful field and encouraging them to make the most of their time here. I also said, and it’s worth repeating, that one of the cornerstones of the School is diversity, and we will not tolerate intolerance.

Lauren Thie and Amanda Greenberg, Co-presidents, Student Government, wrote a song for the occasions to the tune of “YMCA.” They had everyone out of their seats singing and following the movements Lauren and Amanda taught us (even me!). I love the energy, commitment and optimism that bubbled over in the room. Students, I hope you will remain as excited and engaged as you were at orientation.

Oberlander’s article in NEJM

I was very pleased to read the latest issue of New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and see that Associate Professor Jon Oberlander was featured in one article and authored another. If you want to read a very coherent analysis of the difference between Obama’s and McCain’s health care approaches, Jon’s done a really nice job of showing what each candidate proposes and how their positions differ.

Dirty water

The same NEJM issue included an article titled Talking Dirty – The Politics of Clean Water and Sanitation by Michele Barry, MD and James M. Hughes, MD.

It’s striking for NEJM to make the environment/health connection. The article provides a compelling statement about the disproportionate attention and resources given to lack of access to clean water and sanitation. According to Bartram and colleagues (Lancet, 2005), lack of access to clean water and sanitation affects one third of the world’s population.

“Political support is urgently needed at all levels for the development and implementation of evidence-based  recommendations to improve access to safe water, for the enhanced surveillance of water-related diseases, for the financial support of relevant epidemiologic and laboratory research, and for the development of accessible educational materials. Clearly, we need to start talking dirty water.”

Even in schools of public health, I wonder if we have the right alignment between our country and the world’s problems and what people – our students and faculty study. If any other problem affected one third of the world’s population, wouldn’t we focus a lot more attention on it?

Passing

In the August 18th issue of Science, Francis Collins wrote a commentary about the impact of Victor A. McKusick, MD who died in July 2008.  McKusick, who’s been called the father of medical genetics, is known for many accomplishments. Among these, he started a very successful short course in medical genetics, held teach summer at Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. I was very fortunate to have been able to take the course in 1997.

Thanks students!

Thanks to our students Rushina Cholera, Josh Davis, Chris Deery, Liz Futrell, Jeff Nguyen and Amber Turnbull.  They very good-naturedly came to my office at 4:30pm last Friday so we could take pictures. For me, getting pictures taken is worse than going to the dentist, because the pain lingers (OK, I am exaggerating a little). Anyway, thanks to the students, the photographer got some photos, and I had a chance to interact with some of our students. And that’s one of the really fun parts of this job!

We also took pictures on one of the cycles at the Wellness Center at Meadowmont. Thanks to Paula Roupas and Mike O’Hara for letting us use the cycle room. No matter how many hours I work, I nearly always make it to a 5:45 a.m. or 6 a.m. spinning class!

This coming weekend is the first football game of the season. We play McNeese University. No upsets permitted.

Have a great week. Happy Monday.