In the Daily Bruin article alleging admissions favoritism in the Orthodontics Residency Program, Robert Faturechi states that a subcommittee within the Faculty Executive Committee (FEC) is in the process of implementing changes in the School of Dentistry’s residency admissions process (“Donations influence admissions,” News, Nov. 13).
As current chair of the committee, I wish to inform the Daily Bruin readership that, in actuality, the changes we made to the admissions policies and procedures have been adopted and are already being implemented in the current admissions cycle.
I feel strongly that some additional background information will provide useful context.
The FEC was first made aware of the allegations the Daily Bruin describes when Dr. John Beumer distributed a letter by e-mail in February 2007 announcing his decision to resign as chair of the FEC. As admissions policies fall under the purview of the faculty at UCLA, the FEC immediately sought to understand the issues involved.
On March 2, 2007, the FEC met with Acting Executive Vice Chancellor Scott Waugh. It was then that the FEC learned that a thorough investigation of allegations made in private last November 2006 had been conducted.
Waugh stated that the investigation found no specific or systematic evidence of wrongdoing and that the allegations were not supported. The investigation, however, did find instances of impropriety or the appearance of impropriety and specific recommendations were provided to assist the FEC in improving the admissions practices of our residency programs.
During the spring quarter, the FEC, working in concert with Dean No-Hee Park and his administration, and also with UCLA’s Postdoctoral Certificate and Residency Program Committee, developed new policies to ensure that all of the school’s admissions processes and standards are transparent, fair and free of inappropriate bias. These policies were formally adopted by the faculty in July 2007 and made public on the dental school’s Web site.
In a parallel action, the dental school administration, in consultation with the FEC, developed new guidelines that prohibit: (1) consideration of past or present donations in any aspects of school operations, including admissions, and (2) the seeking of donations from current applicants, students, fellows, or their relatives or business partners. The FEC approved these guidelines in September 2007 and they are also posted on our Web site .
I hope that this more detailed report of the chain of events during the past year makes it clear that UCLA, the administration of the UCLA School of Dentistry, and the FEC of the School of Dentistry have all taken responsible action through the time-tested UC channels of shared governance.
The foregoing is a powerful example of how the FEC works. It is capable of asking tough questions of the administration and working out appropriate resolutions to complicated problems.
I am proud to serve as FEC chair during this important time.
Yagiela is the chair for the Faculty Executive Committee at the UCLA School of Dentistry.