American Osteopathic Association
Council on Pre-doctoral Education
George Callel, D.O., Chair
142 East Ontario Street
Chicago, IL 60611-2864
RE: KCOM Clinical Faculty
Administrative Issues at KCOM
Dear Dr. Callel and members of the Council:
We are writing you now as truly concerned KCOM alumni and Osteopathic physicians. Eight of the former KCOM Clinical Faculty (including tenured faculty) who first wrote your committee of the inconsistencies of the KCOM administration regarding increasing class sizes were not offered new faculty contracts. The steering committee of the Clinical Faculty also had all academic rank removed by the Dean and President of KCOM. They were all explicitly informed via a memo they would not be offered new contracts.(1) This response by the administration was an act of direct retribution of an action by the Clinical Faculty to bring concerning issues to the attention of the pre-doctoral committee.(2) The following issues outlined below may not only affect the accreditation of KCOM, but calls into question the practices of the administration at KCOM that have yet to be addressed by the KCOM Board of Trustees or the AOA. If these issues are not adequately addressed by the AOA, a detriment to our profession may result.
Many of the remaining Clinical Faculty were not offered renewed contracts and several of those who were offered contract renewals did not sign due to no confidence of the current administration. Contracts that were offered to select members of the former clinical faculty contained an unprecedented arbitration clause and a non-defined “gross misconduct” clause. Another clause would require a faculty member to reimburse the college if requested courses were not taught for any reason.(3) Recently, few members of the clinical faculty have been granted contracts in a rapid manner, while others have been discriminated against by requiring an unprecedented application method that requires a longer process of sitting before an “administrative/faculty council”, Presidential approval, then eventual board consideration.(4) This blatant method of discriminating consideration of faculty re-instatement is unconscionable and wrong. We protest vehemently against this discriminatory treatment and retribution of our colleagues who bravely told the truth about the current KCOM administration.
Our commitment to honesty and the desire to be associated with an outstanding osteopathic institution, preclude us from continuing within the current administrative environment at KCOM. We have repeatedly attempted to initiate dialogue with the administration.(5) When communication broke down, we again attempted to work within the internal processes available to us with no success. With our voices of concern denigrated or ignored by the administration, we are compelled to turn to the AOA for oversight of the administrative practices at KCOM that affects faculty issues, curriculum, student concerns, and quality education. This document is intended to elucidate several issues surrounding the problems facing the Clinical Faculty at KCOM and is a summary of events that have transpired over the past two years.
In years leading up to the current crisis, the Clinical Faculty has faced a multitude of problems that hinder the effective role of a clinician to teach students. KCOM offered little monetary support for clinical academic endeavors, in stark contrast to other college departments. This attitude has forced the clinical faculty to collect personal funds to pay for basic educational needs like teaching materials, computers, cameras, and slides. Members of the clinical faculty formed a private charitable fund to support educational improvements not only at KCOM, but for other educational needs of the entire Northeast Missouri community.
Not long after Dr. Kuchera assumed duties as Dean, it became apparent that problems with the academic functions of KCOM were developing which were not being addressed. Concurrently, there was a noticeable shift in the focus of KCOM policies. With the initiation of the Dean’s AFFOM program, the first year of the curriculum took longer to be taught with redundant integration of OTM into basic sciences classes that were also taught elsewhere in the curriculum. During multiple clinical faculty meetings, the Clinical Faculty was requested to move teaching hours to the third and fourth years in a videotaping format to accommodate the redundant hours in the curriculum. The Administration had no effective method to insure that essential clinical material from the second year could be uniformly taught outside the classroom in a videotaping format. Clinical hours had already been condensed to such a critical point that no more hours could be reduced without impacting quality student education at KCOM.
