Dear colleagues and friends:

We live in interesting times. Amid the challenges we face as a country, we also face stressors in our profession and across higher education. The economic changes in dental practice in the last 10 years have led to differentiation in the market trends for our graduates. In 2017, graduates and their practice options are different than they were 20 or more years ago. Partially driven by changing practice patterns, disease patterns and access to third party payments, consumers are utilizing dental services differently.

In higher education, our pressures stem from policy on all levels and are directly tied to state economics and the parsing of limited dollars in a fixed pie of resources. With budget cuts proposed to NIH funding, the value of intellectual growth in science may be threatened at a time when the scientific underpinnings of our profession must be preserved. At the School of Dentistry, we strive each day to be resourceful, to operate with efficiency, and to make wise decisions that preserve our mission to educate bright, talented young people in general dentistry, dental specialties and dental hygiene. It seems that in all aspects of our work, we are required to do things differently to imagine and implement new means of achieving our goals. In this time of scarce resources, we work to continue to distinguish our programs and to provide our faculty, staff and students opportunities to shine. They most certainly do! For instance, despite the competitiveness of NIH funding, our researchers continue to be successful in securing financial support for their extraordinary work. Also, we have hired individuals who will extend our research and clinical expertise in new, exciting directions, meshing with the foci of our existing faculty.

Change is the new normal; yet, in these times of change and challenge, we are also rich! Our talented and committed faculty and staff resolutely advance our educational goals, enabling our students to shine bright in their achievements on their path to graduation.

You, our alumni and friends, support the School in many ways, for which we are exceedingly grateful. More than ever, the support that you generously share with us helps us meet our goals to have the best programming and to educate the best dentists and dental hygienists for the future. As we focus on special projects representing our priorities, your assistance and advocacy at all levels continues to help us make progress in improving educational resources and achieve facilities upgrades. Thank you for your continuing support of the School!

Sincerely,

Marsha Pyle