In a special “You Advised Us ...We Did It” letter from Drs. Kasmer, Schmidt and Young, positive change is attributed to honest dialogue held at the inaugural town hall meeting.
--
Dear NEOMED Students:
Thank you for attending our inaugural NEOMED town-hall meeting on February 5. With a goal of optimizing your education and experience, the town-hall was designed to be a forum for honest conversations and to bring about positive change.
In addition to providing you with opportunities to engage members of our leadership in dialogue around issues that matter to you, we are equally committed to following up on lingering questions and outstanding issues.
One of the more highly discussed topics was the Sequoia Wellness fee structure. Many of you who were in attendance, as well as others who were online, raised concerns of pricing, fairness and access, particularly for students in their third and fourth years of clinicals.
As discussed during the forum, President Gershen had also challenged the leadership team to devise a plan to restructure the student health and fitness fee for Sequoia Wellness, as he had also heard these concerns from several students.
We are happy to report to you the following adjustments to Sequoia Wellness fees that will be effective as of the upcoming 2018-19 academic year:
- Fourth-year pharmacy and medicine students. NEOMED will eliminate one-hundred percent (100%) of the Sequoia Wellness fees and charges for all fourth-year medicine and pharmacy students. While this addresses students’ fairness concerns of incurring Sequoia Wellness fees during their fourth-year of clinical rotations, the University still wants students to have access when they are on campus. Therefore, all fourth-year medicine and pharmacy students will be able to keep their memberships active at no cost*, which allows them to use the Sequoia Wellness facilities whenever they are on campus.
- Third-year medicine students. NEOMED will reduce by fifty percent (50%) the Sequoia Wellness fees and charges for all third-year medicine students. All third-year medicine students will continue to receive their full memberships and access to the Sequoia Wellness facilities at this reduced rate*.
Thank you for partnering with us to create solutions and strategies that will positively impact NEOMED. We hope that you will consider attending subsequent town-hall meetings as we want to hear your thoughts, ideas and feedback.
*This fee structure change will go into effect for the 2018-19 academic year.
Elisabeth H. Young, M.D.
Vice President for Health Affairs and
Dean, College of Medicine
Richard J. Kasmer, Pharm.D., J.D.
Vice President for Academic Affairs and
Dean, College of Pharmacy
Steven P. Schmidt, Ph.D.
Vice President for Research and
Dean, College of Graduate Studies