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From the Dean

Congratulations to our colleagues in UND’s John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences for capturing the 2019 National Intercollegiate Flying Association (NIFA) Championship this past weekend at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. This was the 17th time UND won this competition, starting around 1970 when John Odegard himself took the first UND flying team […]

Graduation weekend last week was a blast! I, along with fellow faculty, staff, and students, had a full dance card of activities Friday through Sunday as UND graduated over 1,900 students, including over 300 from the SMHS. There were department-specific activities like hooding ceremonies for graduating physician assistant and physical therapy students, an open house […]

Graduation weekend is here! Over the next two days, we will graduate over 300 medical and health sciences students who are destined for additional training, clinical practice, or other health-related employment. We are proud of them! They are going forward with wonderful opportunities, thanks to the education and training they received here at UND and […]

True to the predictions that were circulating in Bismarck last week, the North Dakota Legislature indeed did adjourn last Friday night on the 76th day of this year’s session (out of a possible 80 days). That leaves four days “in the bank” if it were necessary to reconvene the Legislative Assembly for some reason, albeit […]

A big “Thank You!” to all who participated in the first UND Gives philanthropic event this past Wednesday. UND Gives, to be repeated annually, is a 24-hour online fundraising challenge that aims to rally philanthropic support for UND initiatives. Thanks to the generosity of more than 600 of UND’s alumni, friends, and supporters, the UND […]

Given that the North Dakota Legislature is expected to wrap up its session in the next 10 days or so, we will soon know the specifics of our appropriated budget provided by state funding. We don’t expect any surprises, but still need further clarity on certain issues like the merit increase pool. I’m very pleased […]

The presentation by Julie A. Blehm, MD, FACP, associate professor of Internal Medicine (retired) and Robert Olson, MD, clinical professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Dean’s Hour last week was indeed the special event that we anticipated. Drs. Blehm and Olson interacted with a standing-room-only audience and addressed the issue of provider depression and […]

The UND SMHS has three fundamental missions: to educate health care providers, especially individuals destined to deliver care to the citizens of the state; to discover new scientific knowledge that benefits North Dakotans; and to serve the people of the state. Of all of the institutions of higher education in North Dakota, only our School […]

Here’s an update on the legislative front. The funding bill for all of higher education (engrossed HB 1003) has been under review by the Senate Appropriations Committee since we presented to the committee several weeks ago. This past Wednesday, a subcommittee consisting of three members of the full committee met to come up with specific […]

Earlier this week, the higher education budget (H.B. 1003) was reviewed by the Senate Appropriations Committee of the North Dakota Legislature. First up this past Monday was an overview presented by the North Dakota University System (NDUS) office, followed by President Kennedy and others on behalf of UND. Then later on Monday afternoon I presented […]

I have some exciting news to report. I just learned that our first choice for MD White Coat Ceremony speaker this August has accepted our invitation. As you may recall, various health profession programs, including our medical, physical therapy and physician assistant studies students, have ceremonies where the students are presented with white coats as […]

I’ve been chairing a medical school accreditation survey team visit to a western school on behalf of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) this week. As I’ve discussed before, there are two good reasons for me to do this: first is the public service component—accreditation is a U.S. Department of Education requirement, and having […]

Dr. Wynne is on his way to chair an accreditation survey team visit to a medical school in the western U.S. on behalf of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). His column will return next week.

This week I attended (and participated in) the winter meeting of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME); we also meet in the fall and late spring. In addition to the recurring job of determining the accreditation status of various U.S. and Canadian medical schools, we spent a full day at the start of the […]

I have sad news to report. For those of you who haven’t heard, Janelle Eken, wife of Randy Eken, our recently retired associate dean for administration and finance, passed away last week after a courageous 11-month battle with pancreatic cancer. A terrible loss; Janelle had a way of making friends with anyone and everyone. The […]