UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE AND DENTISTRY OF NEW JERSEY
SCHOOL OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE
STUDENT COUNCIL
One Medical Center Drive  Suite 210  Stratford, NJ 08084
Tel: (856) 566-6981  Fax: (856) 566-6714  email: stuco@umdnj.edu
Student Council Minutes
Meeting Date: November 29, 2011
Location: Room 276
Next Meeting: Thursday, January 26, 2012
Location: AC 276
I. Call to Order and Attendees:
(A) The meeting was called to order at 7:10pm.
(B) Attendees:
STUCO E-board: Luigi Cendana, Matthew Vargas, Michael Favara, Joseph
Asaro, Dmitry Esterov, Komal Patel, Frank Lien
Class of 2012: Ingrid Edshteyn
Class of 2013: Wade Ng, Neiman Ramjattan, Zachary Hernandez
Class of 2014: Sonya Vankawala, Jacob Melnick, Ashley Wallis, Mitul Patel, Bill
Gartlan, Justin Berkowitz
Class of 2015: Kanad Mukherjee, Eric Goldwaser, Amy Triche, Parin Shah, Rima
Rana, David Rahimian
Guests: Dr. Lambert, Dr. Cavalieri, Dr. LaRatta.
(C) Excused: Nosheen Jawaid, Abi Whetstone
(D) Unexcused: Mike Caposole, Matt Ingrassia, Aileen Chen, Dean Chamberlain, Pavli
Demian, Alexandra Schieber, Ali Nasir, Robin Craig
II. Approval of Minutes
(A) The October 2011 meeting minutes were unanimously approved.
III.
Special Business
Dr. Cavalieri:
o NJOEF gave UMDNJ-SOM a gift to support student travel activities. This was able
to provide students the ability to travel to conferences! NJAOPS gave the school
$10,000 to use towards student professional development.
o UMDNJ Advisory Committee: a meeting was held this previous Monday in
Princeton. The Committee will be coming out with their report about UMDNJ in
mid-December. This committee did recommend in their Interim report that Robert
Wood Johnson should be merged with Rutgers University, along with the School of
Public Health and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, with the future of NJMS and
SOM to be decided at the end of the year. There are a few options:
o Have a UMDNJ North and South campus in Newark and down in Stratford
o Become part of Rutgers University
o
o
o
o
o Become part of the University of South Jersey: merger of Rowan, RutgersCamden, Cooper, SOM, and the Rutgers Law School
We recognize the importance of having a research link! The two major centers for
research institutions are UMDNJ and Rutgers. The University of South Jersey, which
would be a newly created university, would not have this research available
immediately, which raises concerns.
o Accreditation issues: along with the opening of Cooper Medical School, there
would be serious concern with allocation of resources for our students.
Both remaining part of UMDNJ, as well as becoming a part of Rutgers would have
benefits for our school.
This committee thinks a lot of our school – they recognize our school’s success and
call us an “academic jewel.” Even if we were to become another school, the
committee is already talking to the Middle States Accreditation Association to ensure
that any accreditation for the school is secure.
o NJAOPS, our state association, is working hard to ensure that our school is
protected in any changes that may occur to the school.
o When would this occur? There are two opinions:
 That upon hearing the results, the governor could immediately act
upon this, after which the legislature would have 60 days to repeal it.
If this does not occur, it would be slated that RWJ would become part
of Rutgers on July 1, 2012.
 Another opinion is that this would be part of active legislature and
would not occur that quickly.
Graduate Medical Education: down the road, there will not be enough positions for
GME if we don’t respond to this need. One of the areas that the federal government
was looking to cut was in graduate medical education, which would be disastrous for
us. We’ve had a little reprieve for this, but the problem is still out there. Over the next
few years, the number of graduates from both DO and MD medical schools will be
greater than the number of slots for graduate medical education.
o The federal government funds GME for the most part. A number of years ago,
the government froze the number of spots at the number they were at in 1996.
Hospitals have a very difficult time growing GME – a lot of have to take out
of their own funds, and about half of these hospitals are already in the red. On
the other hand, if hospitals have never had graduate medical education, they
are able to start new programs themselves for a few years, and then later they
will be able to get federal funding.
o There is also legislation that is being proposed that will add 15,000 GME slots
if it is passed. We want students to be aware of this challenge!
o You can view Dr. Cavalieri’s editorial on the UMDNJ website:
http://som.umdnj.edu/deans/oped11_20_11.html
o Our school is growing OGME positions! South Jersey Healthcare will be as
big as the Kennedy system in the next few years. In the past year they have
started OB/GYN, Ortho, and Family Medicine. Next year they are planning
on having Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine.
o We are also talking to several hospitals: Ocean Medical Center, Southern
Ocean Medical Center, and St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic. Today, Dr.
Cavalieri met with Virtua Hospital – they want to make their Family Medicine
program dually accredited. They also have a number of other residencies that
they are interested in partnering with us.
o Another issue with regards to GME – the ACGME accredits allopathic
programs. There are a number of ACGME programs that traditionally would
have recognized the DO training to enter ACGME programs. There is a
proposal that to enter an ACGME program, there would be a prerequisite of
doing an internship in an ACGME program.
 For example, if you wanted to become a Cardiologist and did an AOAapproved residency, you would not be eligible to do a fellowship in an
ACGME program.
 This poses a lot of problems and is unacceptable. This produces major
pushbacks at several levels. The AOA is really fighting this! This is
more about the concern about training that isn’t accredited anywhere
in this country. This refers to individuals who trained outside of the
country in neither an ACGME nor AOA residency.
 AACOM, ACGME, and AAMC are all fighting to make sure that this
doe not get changed.
o We are very proud of our students for receiving the Spirit of Humanity Award,
particularly to those who are volunteering with the Camden Saturday Health Clinic –
this is an award of $10,000 that is given by the AOA. On December 8, we are
hosting a celebration for our students. We will be recognizing this achievement, as
well as the service of the clubs that our students partake in.
o We have a new chair of Psychiatry – Dr. O’Reardon. He was recruited from the
University of Pennsylvania. He is internationally renowned for his treatment of
depression.
Dr. John LaRatta, NJAOPS President-Elect:
o We are trying to help further incorporate both NJAOPS and SOM together! We are
trying to garner interest in a program that involves County Liaisons. If you have
certain students who are residents of certain counties, you would act as liaisons with
your county Osteopathic societies. This allows you to see what goes on at a county
level, as well as to interact with Osteopathic physicians in all different parts of their
careers.
o These students would hopefully be able to attend the county meetings that occur
monthly. The duties of these officers would be to be a sounding board to the county
associations, as well as to be a representative to those who reside in the county who
have questions.
o We are looking to have more than one student per county, especially based on
interest. We are ideally looking to have one student per year per county!
o Interested? We would be looking to start this up in the next Academic Year. The
process of choosing a person would be up to the student body. The meeting schedules
are actually in the NJAOPS Updates e-mails that are sent to the entire student body!
o Contact information: Dr. John LaRatta.
Dr. Lambert:
o We are actually ahead on Flu vaccines for this year!
o 2012: still have 22 students left to be vaccinated. Send out emails to your class to
get vaccinated, it’s free! Go over to Student Health from 9am-8pm MondayThursday and 9am-1pm on Friday to get vaccinated!
o 2013: only 5 students left!
o 2014: only 1 student left.
o 2015: as of this afternoon, there’re only 2 students left. Remember: this is a
required vaccine.
o We just had a number of great student events. The SOMA meeting, COSGP meeting,
and AOA meetings had tremendous student participation. We also had the Diwali
Festival, Grand Rounds, Cooking Classes, Dr. Levine visiting, Book signings, and other
great events from our students.
o Another great event was the Alumni Reunion. We had a great representation
from the student leaders!
o Holiday Tree Lighting: Tuesday, December 6th at noon.
o Celebration of Humanity: Thursday, December 8th at 6pm. This event celebrates
all of the community service that all of our students have done over the past year.
o MLK Day of Service: Monday, January 16th – we are still working on that project.
o UMDNJ Talent Show: this Friday!
o Updated financial reports have been done by Dr. Lambert’s office staff. These reports
have not gone out yet – these will go out to the class liaisons and the class president.
o The STUCO Operational financials and the NJOEF financial report. In looking at
the STUCO budget, there is some extra money in the account. STUCO should try
to develop some projects in the coming months to utilize that money. Prior events
include Random Acts of Kindness, Acts of Compassion, and other events.
Student DO of the Year: there were a number of tremendous applicants and the process of
selecting the winner was a difficult one. Traditionally, the winner of this award accompanies the
student leaders to the Spring COSGP conference to receive their award, as well as to place their
name in the choosing for the National SDOY.
o This student embodies leadership, as well as embodiment of the Osteopathic philosophy.
o This year’s Student Doctor of the Year is Student Doctor Patricia Hughes, OMS-II.
IV. Executive Committee Reports:
(A)
President:
o Thank you for all those who attended the Resume writing workshop with Dr.
Kimmelman. We hope that you took a lot from it.
o Dmitry Esterov and I attended the Council of Student Government Presidents Fall
Conference was held from October 29th to October 31st in Orlando, Florida.
o NBOME Update: For COMLEX Level 1: Highlight and strike out features will be
available in 2012. For COMLEX Level 2 PE: They will not be expanding locations.
Expanding will result a doubling in price. Location for the PE site is Conshohocken,
PA.
o First-time takers Pass rate for Level 1 from 2010 to 2011 was 87.6% to
92.6%.
o AACOM Updates: Currently, there are 26 COMs in 34 locations.
o Budget Control Act: Eliminated subsidized loan program of graduate students.
Currently, we are allowed to take $8500 in subsidized loans per year.
Beginning in July of 2012 this will no longer exist, but will not affect
previously subsidized monies. The total amount that can be borrowed from the
government is still at $20500, however. Why? To pay for Pell grants.
o ACGME: Proposed changes to the Common Program Requirements. The revision is:
Prerequisite clinical education for entry into ACGME-accredited residency programs
must be accomplished in ACGME-accredited residency programs or Royal College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC)-accredited residency programs located
in Canada.
o Currently: Osteopathic internship can apply for a MD residency and then MD
fellowship or a DO resident can apply to a MD residency.
o Change would result in only students who have completed MD internships
can apply for MD residencies and then MD fellowships.
o I have attached the talking points of AACOM and AOA leadership as to their
opposition to this proposal.
o I appreciate all of your efforts in calling your senators and representatives.
About 50,000 letters were sent from both DO and MD students to
representatives. As you have heard by now, the Super Committee has failed
cut the budget.
o 2009 Outcomes of Osteopathic Match was sent out to all classes last month. We were
advised that the next edition is not guaranteed.
o COSGP recommended to remove the failed scores and use pass scores in
order to get a smaller standard deviation, programs listed by region, and to
have the number of programs students apply to and the number of specialties
applied to and adding to that the average number of interviews per number of
programs applied to.
o AOA President Dr. Levine visited our school on November 9th. He spoke to the first
and second year classes regarding what it means to be an osteopathic physician.
o American Osteopathic Foundation
o Spirit of Humanity Award was awarded to the Camden Saturday Health
Clinic.
o A reception will be held on December 8th.
o I will be attending the COSGP Conference from January 13-15th. It will be
held in TOURO-Nevada.
o Funding requests: a guide to funding requests has been posted on the Bulletin for the
past 3 weeks and is also on our STUCO website.
o Try to sign up for AACOM news alerts!
o Come to the Talent Show on Friday! There will be “treats.”
(B) First Vice President:
o We met with the Club Presidents yesterday to discuss the lounge cleanup and funding
request issues - there are no general issues with the clubs, and everything is going well.
o There are a couple of potential clubs here to be recognized – we look forward to hearing
from you.
(C) Second Vice President:
o N/A
(E) Secretary:
o Nothing to report.
(F)
Public Relations:
o Nothing to report.
(G)
Alumni Affairs:
o The Alumni Reunion was a big success – there were 10 classes represented since 1981.
o Save-the-Date: the Second annual Day of Service will be on January 16th from 9am-noon.
This is an event where alumni are going to participate!
(H)
Student Senate:
o We had a Student Senate meeting at the school 2 weeks ago. There was one issue that
was brought up: the Student Senate wants either 1% of our STUCO budget given to
them, or $150. About $1200 of their budget goes to Community Service, $400 goes
to meetings, $300 goes to student awards, and $100 goes towards miscellaneous
expenses.
o Concerns: 60% of this is going towards Community service – but they have yet to
find a mechanism to implement this.
(I)
Treasurer:
o Development and posting of a document in regards to funding sources, requests, and
acquisition has been completed. Clubs should have it via email, it should be posted on
the STUCO bulletin board, and it should also be on the STUCO website.
V. Class Reports:
(A)
o
(B)
o
(C)
o
(D)
o
(E)
(F)
o
2012:
Many of us are still on away electives throughout the country! We are also going on our
interviews until the end of January. Our second yearbook committee will be meeting
tomorrow to go through photos and setting up class pages.
2013:
December 9th: official halfway point for rotations. November 7th: submitted preference
forms for fourth years.
2014:
Class just completed Pulmonology and is now on Uro/Renal. The OMM final is coming
up next week, and December 1st a panel consisting of Third Year students will be held.
PBL 2014:
Just finished Cardio/Renal/Respiratory module. Still meeting with Dr. De Risio on a
regular basis!
2015:
o There have been a lot of tests last week, this week, and next week. There is a
brownbag scheduled with Dr. Griesback on December 9th. This Friday there is a
meeting for the Summer Medical Research Fellowship.
PBL 2015:
Cardio/Renal module, exam next week. OMM final practical next week.
VI. Committee Reports:
(A)
Curriculum:
o Meeting was 3 weeks ago. We continued to talk about satisfactory academic progress and
are using this as a possible reason to re-evaluate the grading system. It’s been discussed
to eliminating the Low Pass grade and making the Pass grade a 70. This is still being
discussed.
(B) Student Affairs:
o We also spoke about the Student Academic Progress – this deals with how financial aid
will be handled. We will be handling academic progress every semester. This is a
government policy!
(C) Honor Code:
o 3rd and 4th years: if you have any issues or concerns, remind your Honor Code Reps if
you have any issues!
VII. Club Affairs:
SOMA/AOA Updates:
o Resolutions: On 9/13 SOMA held a resolutions workshop to raise awareness in the
student body to what resolutions are and how they are handled. This workshop went
over how resolutions are written, how they are debated using Robert's Rules of Order,
and what happens when a resolution is passed or voted down. Students were
encouraged to raise issues about the medical field and our education by offering
solutions by way of resolution writing. Several issues were brought up at the
meeting, and two of these topics were proposed at the fall convention in Orlando as
resolutions. Others plan on being finished and presented at the spring convention in
Washington, D.C. Another resolutions workshop is scheduled for the early spring
semester.
The resolutions were:
Resolution: F-2011-2
Subject: PROPOSAL FOR AN ANNUAL LIMIT ON THE INCREASES IN
TUITION AT OSTEOPATHIC SCHOOLS
Submitted by:
Robert Gesumaria, OMS-II (University of Medicine and Dentistry of New JerseySchool of Osteopathic Medicine)
Action Taken: Withdrawn by writer.
This resolution was withdrawn because the foundation upon which it was written
was shown to be ineffective in the state of New Jersey. A limit on tuition
increases was felt to be too much of a burden on higher education institutions that
are facing massive tuition cuts at the state level.
Resolution: F-2011-4
Subject: CHILDHOOD AND TEENAGE SEXUAL EXPOSURE
Submitted by:
Robert Gesumaria, OMS-II (University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School
of Osteopathic Medicine)
Action Taken: Approved as amended.
o The original resolution stated that SOMA and the AOA would support sexual
education in schools using “...preferably abstinence and avoidance of high risk sexual
behavior.” The first edit that was submitted took this statement out of the resolution,
favoring contraception and STD education instead. After much debate, it was
decided that doctors should use all avenues to prevent teenage pregnancy and STD
spread. Therefore, abstinence education was still included in the edited resolution, but
the wording was changed to strike the “preferably” and include abstinence education
as an equal portion of sexual education, not as an isolated method.
o School-Centered Politics: During the week of 10/10 SOMA presented on the
debilitating 29.5% Medicare cut looming on the horizon due to the Sustainable
Growth Rate (SGR). We advocated the Every Patient Counts campaign to avoid this
cut, and got many students and faculty to join up with the petition to increase its
strength. Through our presentation we have brought this very important issue to the
forefront of the student body at UMDNJ-SOM.
VIII. Old Business:
o OHEENT Club: Osteopathic Head, Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Club. Approval as a
Probationary Club was unanimous (12).
IX.
New Business:
(A) Medical Students for Life Club. Approval as a probationary club was unanimous (12).
(B) Preventive Medicine Interest Group. Approval as a probationary club and provide a
national charter at the next meeting was approved (9 yes, 2 no, 1 abstain).
(C) Student Senate Budget Request.
(D) Open Discussion.
X. Motion to adjourn:
(A) The meeting was adjourned at 9:50pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael Favara, OMS-III
STUCO Secretary