Greetings from the Department of Orthodontics
Can you believe that another year has passed? Happy 2023! I guess I would characterize our current situation as being settled back to normal. The past couple of years have been rather tumultuous with a lot of uncertainty. We have been through three Deans, had a clinic shutdown of about eight weeks, worked with maximum PPE, even did annual interviews virtually in 2020, almost moved to a new clinical facility but went through a modest renovation instead and, now, things are just about normal again.
Dr. Lyndon Cooper, our new Dean, came to the School in April 2022 and has been quietly working behind the scenes to get backing to construct a new building for the school. That process is ongoing but it appears that there is support from the university and the project is being forwarded to the State Legislature for funding. We should get some news on that in the coming months. Of course, that is only the beginning since a site for the new building has not been identified and only the most preliminary work has been done to get the design started. Certainly, this will be a massive and exciting undertaking for a new Dean and for all of us.
I would say the biggest challenge we are facing right now is rapidly rising tuition costs. Since tuition is established in May for the class entering in July, it is not possible to be certain, but it appears that tuition and fees this year for the new residents will be $37,500 and will rise to $45,000 in 2024. That said, we have also been blessed by having two Professorships in the department and three scholarship funds that give us up to $125,000 annually to distribute as scholarships to offset these costs. We have so far been able to keep the actual cost per resident at $16,000 annually but that will become more challenging as tuition continues to rise. The $16,000 cost makes us VERY COMPETITIVE and we are working hard to maintain this level of support. As has been the case every year since I started here in 1989, the class entering in 2023 is made up of the best applicants to orthodontic programs nationwide and they were our top picks.
Our biggest strength remains the people who are here in the department and the stability that we have maintained for the past 20+ years. We have strong full-time and part-time faculty participation in the program. Additionally, we were able to keep all of our clinical staff, and Darlene in the academic office as well, working through the pandemic. That is a huge accomplishment and powerful statement of our ability to all work together effectively. Someone who has not received enough credit for making my job easier is Amanda, our orthodontic practice manager. That position carries with it a huge responsibility. After so many years of instability in that position, Amanda took over that charge in the summer of 2021. She has really done a remarkable job at managing clinic operations, keeping the staff happy and productive, and making sure all the patient accounts are kept up-to-date. And she somehow remains calm and positive throughout the process.
Thank you to Linda Powers, who will be graduating in June, and Logan Passey, who is a first-year resident, for compiling this newsletter. Please contact me at sjlindau@vcu.edu with questions and comments.