To the Deans of the UIC College of Medicine:
We, the undersigned students of the UIC College of Medicine
are dismayed to hear that we might be losing support staff on April 5, 2010.
Our educational experience is often hampered by an administration that is at
its breaking point already, and losing staff in the Undergraduate Medical
Education (UGME), Anatomy, and several other
departments would be a huge impediment to our learning abilities. If UIC’s
College of Medicine is to reach its potential as a world-class medical school,
we must invest in resources for students, not divest.
The budgetary crisis is real. We do not fault you in your
aggressive stance in dealing with it. However, we disagree with your
priorities. While there is a shortfall of state funding this year, there has
also been record-breaking fundraising by the University of Illinois system—to
the tune of $1.87 billion in the past year alone1. What better use
for this money is there than keeping the UIC College of Medicine functioning?
Maintaining current staffing levels in basic student-contact
departments is essential. It is the opinion of those undersigned that we are at
a breaking point in terms of student services. For example, the most basic requirements for keeping our patients
safe—vaccination records, required respirator fittings, and immunizations—are
woefully close to failure. We are not timely notified of what hospitals need
from us. We are not guided through the arduous process of basic compliance in
hospitals.
UIC College of Medicine sorely lacks dedicated and effective
student service staff members like Joe Iosbaker. Joe represents an integral part of the
student experience well beyond his job description, from regularly advocating
for student needs to sharing his UIC history knowledge at a Chicago Medical
Student Council (CMSC) event. The
loss of support staff like Joe, especially in the absence of student input,
reinforces UIC College of Medicine’s history of disillusioned students and
alumni.
We’ll put in the time and money it requires to become physicians.
However, we cannot achieve excellence in a broken
support system. Barring the ideal of increasing support capacity to higher
levels, we ask that student services are at least kept at the current level. We
pay thousands of dollars in tuition, and respectfully request that you, the
administration, keep up your end of the bargain.