Led by a new chancellor, Dr. Martha Gilliland, the University is vibrant with enthusiasm, energy and pride. There is a deep sense, widely shared, that we are on the verge of making major breakthroughs in institutional performance. Odd as this may seem for a normally reserved university community, we are filled with excitement and expectation. UMKC is on the move, and we are defining new standards for higher education as we go.

What explains this transformation? In a word:  inclusion. The chancellor has brought with her a leadership style that invites all members of the University community–faculty, staff, students, administrators, alumni, friends and neighbors–to work collaboratively to invent a future we can all be proud of. And people are responding. Over 1,000 members of the University community have now participated in workshops, task forces, teams and other assorted groupings.

I have been asked by the chancellor to serve on her cabinet and to lead a broad-based effort — Campus Without Borders — to strengthen the University's connection to communities throughout the state and region.

This past year, as an example of the kind of project envisioned by Campus Without Borders, the School of Dentistry organized a bi-state task force on oral health work-force issues. The process proved both deeply instructive and immensely helpful.   

The task force included representatives from the Missouri and Kansas dental, dental hygiene and dental assisting associations; the state dental boards, departments of health, primary health-care associations, and legislatures; area health education centers (AHECs), community health centers, foundations and social services agencies. There were also faculty members and administrators from the School of Dentistry and other oral health education institutions serving Missouri and Kansas .

The task force examined the issues of supply and distribution of oral health professionals, now and 10-20 years into the future. Based on population projections, productivity assumptions, and work-force cohort analysis, the task force concluded there is a potentially serious problem on the horizon. Put simply, Missouri and Kansas are not producing enough dentists to assure that their citizens will have adequate access to care in the years ahead. In rural and inner-city communities, that problem is already upon us.

As the only dental school serving Missouri and Kansas , the responsibility for meeting these states' dental work-force needs naturally falls to us. More than any other academic unit at UMKC, the School of Dentistry is a public utility. We take this responsibility very seriously.

The task force's findings indicate that we need to increase the production of dentists for Missouri and Kansas and that we need to begin today. After a thorough examination and careful review of our D.D.S. program, we have decided to take the following actions:

• The school will expand the size of the incoming D.D.S. class from 86 to 100 students beginning with the fall term in 2002.

• We will adapt our admissions policies and recruitment activities to assure that Missouri and Kansas residents make up 90 percent of that class.

• The Six-Year B.A./D.D.S. program, which served a national and international base of students, will be phased out and replaced with a reserved admissions program that enables gifted collegiate students from Missouri and Kansas to enter dental school after the completion of only two years of college.

• We will expand the size of our faculty in proportion to the increase in the student body and will make appropriate facility adaptations to our existing clinical and instructional space to accommodate the additional workload.

• Finally, we will work in close partnership with the oral health associations, state education and health departments, colleges and universities, AHECs and local communities to recruit into our D.D.S. program qualified applicants, who are broadly representative of the states' demographic and geographic diversity.

I am excited by the new direction we are taking at the School of Dentistry , and I am equally excited by what is happening in the rest of the University. This is a wonderful time to be at UMKC. We are poised to do great things. We have the leadership and the vision; the enthusiasm of faculty, staff, and students; and the support of dedicated and giving alumni like you.

Have a wonderful summer and be sure to join us in October when the ADA comes to Kansas City .

Michael J. Reed, B.D.S., Ph.D
Dean