THE PENDULUM
NEWS
WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 19. 2011 // PAGE 3
Physician Assistant, DPT programs to be
housed together in newly-named Francis Center
Caitlin O’Donnell
News Editor
After gaining final approval from
the Board of Trustees this month, Elon
University will welcome the inaugural
class in the Physician Assistant graduate
program in January 2013 alongside the
Doctoral of Physical Therapy program
in the newly renamed Gerald L. Francis
Center. Preparations are currently
underway to establish a School of Health
Science, which would encompass the
two programs.
A goal that first began more than two
years ago through a science initiative
proposed by Provost Steven House and
Connie Book, associate provost for
academic affairs, will become reality as
the program will work over the next two
years to gain accreditation, recruit and
admit students and build faculty.
In an effort to strengthen the
university’s science program, House
said Elon considered the addition of
pharmacy and physician assistant
programs and conducted feasibility
studies for both options.
“We spoke to people in the
community, people in the industry at
Duke (University), Alamance Regional
Medical Center and Moses Cone (Health
Center), as well as students and faculty,”
he said. “What we saw was, there are
jobs available, the new health care plan
will add 30 million people to the roll.
The feasibility study for a PA program
came back favorably.”
According to House, the proposal
was presented to the graduate council,
academic council and faculty, and each
responded positively. The proposal was
then brought to the Board of Trustees,
where the plans were approved.
“At that time, when we brought it
forward, we knew you needed about
$2 million to start the program,” he
said. “We thought we could bring in
students by the fall of 2012, but we have
now discovered, because of changes in
accreditation guidelines, we can’t bring
them in until January of 2013.”
The projected S2 million cost includes
renovating the space, creating work labs,
admitting students and hiring faculty
and a medical and clinical director.
After fundraising through various
foundations, Elon received $900,000 from
the Duke endowment, in conjunction
with Alamance Regional Medical Center
and Moses Cone Health Center. House
said other foundations have contributed
money as well.
After the approval of the program.
House said the real question was its
location. With a competing offer from
downtown Greensboro, where the Elon
School of Law is located, the university
decided to keep the program on
campus.
“We purchased the Francis Center,
the former Smithfield Ham building,
(earlier this year) and were already
moving the DPT program there,” he
said. “We decided it was good to keep the
programs together.”
The naming of the building after
Executive Vice President Gerry Francis
came at the suggestion of President Leo
Lambert, House said, in an effort to
reward the commitment and excellence
Francis has upheld as an instrumental
part of making the university what it is
today.
Francis, who will retire after spring
of this year, said he is not only honored
by the recognition, but also pleased to be
associated with the health sciences.
“Working at Elon has been a true
pleasure and 1 have enjoyed every day
of it,” he said. “When all the work pays
off like it has in Elon’s success, it makes
it even more satisfying. 1 offer a huge
thank you for all of this recognition.”
The building, which will undergo
renovations to accommodate the addition
of two programs, should be completed by
December 2011, House said, in time for
DPT program classes to begin in January
of the next year. While the facilities for
the PA program will be finalized at that
time, the program itself will not accept
students for another year.
Mark Archambault, vice chair of
the Department of Physician Assistant
Studies at Wake Forest University
School of Medicine, was selected as the
first director of the PA program and
will play an integral role in building
the foundations of the program before
students arrive in 2013.
“We had several very good candidates,
but he was a fit for Elon,” House said.
“His vision for international experience
and a service learning component
represents all of the things that we really
pride ourselves for in the undergraduate
departments, and he wants to bring
PHOTO SUBMITTED
The newly named Francis Center will house the Doctoral of Physical Therapy and Physician Assistant programs.
them to the graduate program.”
Archambault said he has long been
impressed with Elon’s reputation and
believes his personal values align with
those of the institution. His initial goals
include building a highly qualified
faculty and student base and building
collaborative partnerships on campus
and in the community.
According to House, students of the
program will meet the needs of the
community through primary health
care.
“We hope that a key component will
be to serve an underserved area like
Eastern North Carolina,” he said. “There
are plenty of doctors in Greensboro,
Winston-Salem and Burlington, but what
about some of the rural areas? We’re
hoping these health care providers can
fill that niche.”
The 27-month program, which will
admit 36 students a year, includes a year
of primarily classroom work followed
by 15 months of clinical rotations. A
clinical director, hired by Archambault,
will be responsible for determining
locations for clinical work around the
region and state.
Accreditation, which must be earned
before students can be admitted,
will be based on curriculum, faculty
credentials, facilities, student work
and, most importantly, where clinical
rotations will take place.
“The PAprogram will provide students
with a quality education that ensures
they are not just capable clinicians,
but also humanistic in their approach
to treating all patients as individuals,"
he said. “The program has the ability to
fully embrace the mission of Elon and
directly serve societal needs.”
Archambault says he will work
with Elizabeth Rogers, associate dean
of physical therapy, to determine the
interactions between the PA and DPT
program.
Rogers suggested sharing faculty,
facilities and equipment among students
of the two programs. A common space
in the center will also allow student
groups to meet socially, as well as
professionally.
“There is the opportunity to create
interprofessional opportunities for
the students in both programs,” she
said. “It is expected that many other
synergies will be identified, including
the possibility in the future for the
development of an on-campus clinic in
the Francis Center.”
The proposal for the creation of a
School of Health Sciences will come
before the faculty in the spring, House
said, prior to the time the programs
move in.
“While new programs and curriculum
have to be approved by faculty, the
Clt!clLXUiI KJi a t2ic Do4*ar^
Trustee’s) idea,” he said. “It doesn’t have
to go through the same channels. It’s
just packaging, it already exists."
Proposals for a roadway connecting
the Center with Danieley Center are also
underway, including the addition of a
sidewalk along Haggard Avenue, as well
as landscaping, trees and playing fields.
A different kind of Smitli Jaclcson e-mail:
Worling to prevent potential cyber attacks
Kassondra Cloos
News Editor
Just before the end of fall semester,
Smith Jackson, vice president and dean of
student life, sent an e-mail to the entire
student body warning students about the
effects of cyberbullying. Following
recent events involving students across
the country, specifically the suicide of a
freshman at Rutgers University, Jackson
said he felt it was important to call on
the good will of the student body to
avoid cyberbullying, even though Elon
University can do very little to regulate
it.
“The question comes up, ‘can you
block it from the servers?’" Jackson said.
“And we just feel like if we go down that
slippery slope, then are we going to start
censoring things? Are professors going to
start saying, ‘we don’t like what students
post about us on Rate My Professors?”’
Jackson’s Dec. 14 e-mail, which
detailed the seriousness of cyberbullying,
also noted that publicly writing malicious
comments about fellow students is
against he university’s Honor Code.
“Freedom of expression and civility
are no' antithetical values,” Jackson
wrote in the e-mail. “In fact, they go
hand-ir-hand in our community. While
one rmy express an idea freely, it is
unethi:al to knowingly lie about another
persor or spread false, unsubstantiated
rumoB.”
WHle Jackson did not mention
any specific websites in his message,
freshman Krysten O’Hara said she was
shocked by some of the things she saw
the first, and only, time she visited
CollegeACB.com, a website known for
campus gossip.
“I never even heard of College ACB
until 1 came to college,” O’Hara said. “1
was genuinely curious.”
O’Hara said she first stumbled upon
be funny to make him think she liked
him.
“We were all questioning in the
months after his death what we could
have done differently to prevent him
from doing this," Claude said.
Claude, who lived across the street
from Halligan, said she never got to
know him as well as she knew the rest
of his family.
■While we may not agree with eacli other’s expressions, we must take responsibility for what we say
and do. Posting malicious rumors anonymously on a Web site Instead of censoring this site, wewill
hold students accountable when we know they are violating the honor code.
- Smith Jackson
Vice President and Dean of Student Life
threads about sororities, and noticed
threads asking for comments on the
“sluttiest freshmen.”
“Once I got to something about
somebody 1 knew," O’Hara said, “1 was
like, this is a waste of time."
Junior Casey Claude witnessed the
devastating impacts of cyberbullying at
a young age when Ryan Halligan, a fellow
classmate, hanged himself at the age of
13 in 2003.
According to a memorial website
created by his family, Halligan spent the
summer before eighth grade building an
online relationship with a popular girl in
his class. He was later rejected by her in
person, in front of several of her friends,
when she told him she was joking online
and wanted nothing to do with him. She
said she and her friends thought it would
“It just really didn’t seem real to me
because 1 knew everyone in his family
except for him," Claude said. “Everyone
was in shock and I think the shock lasted
for a long time. It made a lot of us stop
and think."
O’Hara said the effects can be
devastating.
“You see it on the news,” she
said. “People commit suicide because
of stuff people put up online. You don’t
know everything about people, if they
have an underlying condition or if they
are depressed, and you have no idea how
it will affect them if they end up finding
it.”
Jackson said he tells students to
ignore the comments when they go to
him with instances of cyberbullying.
“It’s something that may be difficult
to do, but the university can’t really
control those sites," Jackson said. “Even
if we block it from our servers, they’re
still accessible readily off campus."
According to Jackson, one of the main
problems with websites like CollegeACB.
com is the factor of anonymity.
“We don’t know who’s doing it, so it’s
hard for us to respond with as concrete
of a way as sometimes people hope that
we would," he said.
Claude encouraged students to not
separate themselves from reality when
on the Internet.
“It’s easier not to have to see their
reaction or realize that they’re a real
person who’s going to have some emotion
to what you're saying," she said. “I realize
that you don’t want the confrontation
or whatever, but think about how what
you’re saying is going to have an impact
on someone."
Jackson said that even though
freedom of expression is encouraged
throughout campus, the university is
working to establish a speaker’s corner
on the West Lawn to enable students to
voice their opinions openly, and with
accountability.
As for the websites, Jackson said he
wishes no one would look at the sites at
all.
“There are a lot of times when people
are criticizing those extreme comments
and I think that’s positive, but I think the
best thing is if people would just say ‘1
don’t want any part of that,’" he said.