Teaching contracts expired at the end of June 2000. The clinical representatives had effectively been “fired” by the dean and president. Subsequently, some physicians involved have moved from Kirksville to practice elsewhere. Some were accepted by KCOM and chose to return and serve under the current administration. Many other previous faculty members were not offered contracts to teach 1st and 2nd year KCOM students in the usual manner. The college implied that, except for a few of the former clinical representatives, the other former faculty members could return if a tacit apology was given to the college. This was not forthcoming and many physicians felt this was ingratiating and would be the height of hypocrisy after enduring the events of the past year.
However, these dedicated physicians have continued to voluntarily teach 3rd and 4th year students at the hospital campus in Kirksville without pay. Most of the physicians exiled from the college were senior, experienced faculty members and many had tenure status at KCOM. Since our initial complaints, the present administration has tacitly admitted the validity of the complaints of the former faculty by moving the former dean to a lateral position, forming a faculty senate, providing institutional oversight of the OTM department, and finally beginning to review the entire curriculum. However, little effort has been made to re-hire any of these experienced clinicians, even though these physicians have repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to educate students. In a bewildering turn of events, a former clinical faculty member, Dr. Kevin Suttmoeller, was recently offered a teaching contract that was hastily withdrawn the next day as he was told the acting dean, “doesn’t have the authority to hire faculty”!
In our appraisal, the current atmosphere among students and faculty is one of instability, uncertainty, disappointment and divisiveness. Undergraduate teaching at KCOM is currently deficient. With many departments lacking qualified instructors, the college is currently using itinerant faculty imported to Kirksville to teach many second year courses, similar to the custom at offshore medical schools. The system of how the college attempts to provide education for students is untenable for a medical institution to maintain quality and is, in our view, unacceptable. During the summer of 2000, a student was approached to teach a segment of his own class when the administration was looking for a lecturer. The physician who taught the cardiology course in 2000 was a gerontologist. Another gerontologist was used to teach a portion of the cardiology course this academic year. Most recently, the college has initiated a policy attempting to require interns and residents at the Kirksville hospital to give various classroom lectures to 1st and 2nd year students!
Without an experienced on-campus clinical faculty to offer guidance, who will give the school vision, leadership, and direction? How will this imported itinerant faculty do the committee work and the many other necessary functions of an on-campus faculty? Who will be able to stop the slow descent of KCOM into academic mediocrity? What will the effect of these policies be on KCOM graduates, our future colleagues? The school currently is attempting to search for a new dean. Who would take the job under these circumstances? The attitude of the current administration has cost the college up to $6,000,000 in lost donations from trusts and individuals as projected by sources on the alumni board, as well as estimations from former board of trustee members.
