Following considerable discussion regarding the course and direction KCOM has taken over the past three years, thirty-three physicians of the clinical faculty have recently enjoined in a vote of no confidence for the President, James McGovern, Ph.D, and Dean, Michael Kuchera, D.O. The vote was prompted after repeated attempts to address curricular and student issues through administrative channels at KCOM met with little or no progress.
The clinical faculty agrees with the KCOM Board of Trustee’s desire to actively address the faculty and student issues. These have reached crisis levels on campus in Kirksville and at regional clinical training sites for the 3rd and 4th year students. The clinical faculty believes it is their moral obligation to inform the Chair and Vice-Chair of the KCOM Board of Trustees of the imminent need to address the KCOM campus crisis. The Board leaders appear to have been misinformed by administration as to the gravity of the situation. KCOM-SGA officers have been notified of our intent to accept the Boards verbal offer to meet and take action towards a successful resolution of the clinical faculty and student issues. Yet, the students have been incensed by months of the administration’s ineptness to decisively and honestly address the mounting student unrest. The vast majority of students have virtually no trust remaining for the administration.
The KCOM board of trustees with input from the clinical faculty should intercede and develop a plan of action to deal with the present situation. It is of paramount importance to regain the confidence of the clinical faculty, students and their families, KCOM alumni (including the alumni board), and the local community. It is urgent that these issues be handled in a prompt and serious manner. The clinical faculty’s only motive in our actions rest solely in the best interests of the students at KCOM; who will be our future colleagues, KCOM alumni, and potential KCOM donors. The student’s welfare should be the foremost concern of both parties. However, the clinical faculty remains steadfast in their conviction to remain in the current posture of no-confidence of the current administration. Academic teaching cannot continue under the current environment until the Board addresses critical issues on campus and regional sites that have been ineptly handled by the current administration.
It has come to our attention that the following points illustrate the severity of this situation on campus. 1) Request for KCOM student transfers to the Kansas City and other osteopathic colleges have been so numerous that other registrar offices have contacted the KCOM registrar’s office to inquire about the situation. 2) KCOM has received notice from only 90 acceptances for next years’ class (if this is accurate, this is considerably behind the normal number of acceptance notification for this time of year). 3) The administration’s inane attempt to address the eight issues of concern recently submitted by the student body only further inflamed their unrest. 4) Web based e-mail correspondence has allowed instantaneous verification of wide-spread student dissatisfaction of the administration, including the 3rd and 4th year KCOM students. 5) It has come to our attention that this crisis has been editorialized on local TV, radio, and the newspaper in Kirksville as well as adjacent cities. It may well spill over to more widespread media attention nationally.
We appreciate the Boards limitations to mobilizing quickly, but we maintain that the daily deterioration of the crisis situation at hand can only be deterred by immediate Board intervention. The urgency of this crisis necessitates that the Board meet with the clinical faculty to resolve these issues prior to KCOM graduation ceremonies in June. KCOM graduation should be a time of celebration, not expression of student and family concerns. We anticipate your earnest attention to this matter and prompt response.
