Making a World of Difference
Faculty Convocation
Address
August 22, 2006
Thank you for that
kind introduction. It is a pleasure for me to offer a few words at
this year’s convocation. I must confess that I was a bit surprised
when the Planning Committee first approached me about speaking here.
Of course, it was flattering to be asked, but it begged the question: “Why
me?” After some reflection, the answer became obvious to me – the
Committee was engaged in a noble effort to control the costs associated
with the speaker’s travel expenses and honorarium. I salute them
for their frugality.
Seriously, the Planning Committee has worked very hard this year to organize
an event that it is both informative and interactive. They have selected as a
theme the engagement of MUSC in international activities. The amazing number
of such efforts is evident in the poster presentations on display. In order to
complement the posters, the Planning Committee needed a speaker who could offer
an inspiring vision about global health. Clearly, they were unable to find anyone
who could do that, so they asked me. From a personal perspective, I am just grateful
to be able to address the faculty without having to face a question and answer
period.
Before proceeding
further, I want to take this opportunity to express my appreciation
to you. Nobody on this campus is more keenly aware than yours
truly of the hard
work and dedication of our faculty. The Medical University, with a history
that stretches back over 180 years, has never been in a stronger position
than it
occupies today. We are perceived by our peers not just as an institution that
has stood the test of time, but increasingly we are being seen as a center
of leadership and innovation. So, it came as no surprise when our AHEC
was selected
recently as the best in the country, or when a community outreach effort developed
by our nursing school just won a national competition, or when our heart transplantation
program was shown to have the second best clinical outcomes of any such program
in the country, or when our drug and alcohol program was rated this year as
number eight in the nation, or when our planning grant for the Clinical
and Translational
Science Award was just ranked tenth best out of 70 submissions to this major
NIH initiative.
These are just a
few of the recognitions that our faculty have received in the past
few months. There are many others, in fact, too many to
mention here. Hopefully,
those not cited individually will forgive any unintended slight – my
purpose is not to single out individual efforts, but rather to demonstrate
how widespread
and pervasive the drive for excellence is on this campus. It is felt deeply
by our entire faculty in all of our colleges and there is much to celebrate
throughout
this entire institution.
To work at such a
place, where quality is not just desired, but expected in every aspect
of what we do, places considerable pressure
on all of us. Without
question,
this is a demanding work environment and I am sure that each of us experiences
days when, despite our best efforts, nothing seems to be going right. For
me, the saving grace on days like that comes from refocusing my attention
from
my own work to the amazing things that are being done by others at MUSC.
Just to
be associated with such talented and dedicated people is a rare privilege,
and in the final analysis, allows each of us to be part of something much
bigger than ourselves.
Let me turn now to
the subject that I was asked to address: international activities at
the Medical University. I would
like to share with you three
observations
that have occurred to me recently and have helped to reshape my own thinking
about the relationship between the Medical University and the world. Admittedly,
these are not earth-shaking observations, but they do challenge some conventional
assumptions. For that reason alone, they may warrant a little focus today.
First, let me start
with a true confession. For all of the times that I have spoken about
the importance of diversity on campus, I had a
recent
experience
that drove this point home to me like never before. Surprisingly enough,
it occurred not at work, but rather at a social event. Nobel laureate
Phillip Sharp had been
a visiting lecturer here and the Biochemistry faculty was kind enough
to invite
me to join them for dinner with Dr. Sharp.
As the meal was being
served, it dawned on me that Dr. Sharp, Dr. Eleanor Spicer and I were
in the clear minority.
Among the ten or more colleagues
present,
we were the only ones who had been born in the United States. The other
faculty members included two each from Lebanon and Italy, one from
England, and one
from
Japan, and I am sure that there were other countries, if not continents,
represented.
I had arrived at
that dinner excited about the opportunity to interact with a Nobel
laureate. Indeed, Dr. Sharp was a warm and
charming person,
but that
is
not what made the greatest impression on me that night. Instead, it was
the fact that each and every day on this campus, I have the opportunity
to interact
with
some of the smartest and most dedicated people from all over the world.
This
then is my first observation: it is easy to fall into the trap of
thinking that the equation between the Medical University and international
activities
always favors the direction of MUSC giving to others. The reality is
that MUSC, as we know it today, would not exist without the contributions
of
many students
and faculty from a rich tapestry of countries and backgrounds. If the
equation is not exactly in equilibrium, it is certainly dynamic, and
it is likely
to become even more so in the years ahead.
So, let us turn to
the second observation by citing an example of a person affiliated
with MUSC making
a substantial contribution abroad.
This story
involves one of
our alumni – Dr. John Wilson Bradley. Six years after graduating
from medical school here he joined a Presbyterian missionary effort
in China. He traveled
to the city of Suqian and established a new clinic there. Within
four years, Dr. Bradley led the effort to construct a modern hospital
with
full medical and
surgical services, as well as medical education programs.
With so
many of our students, faculty and alumni engaged in medical missionary
work, you might wonder why I would single out Dr. Bradley’s
efforts. Well, let’s just say that Dr. Bradley may have been
a little ahead of his time. You see, Dr. Bradley graduated from the
Medical College
of South Carolina in
1895. This is my second observation: it is easy to be misled into
thinking that international work is a relatively recent phenomenon
at the Medical
University.
In reality, our predecessors were engaged in international activities
long before it became either easy or fashionable.
With the advent of
inexpensive and fast transcontinental transportation,
satellite transmissions of mass media, wireless telephones, and of
course, the ubiquitous
internet, it is easy to fall into the trap of considering international
work only in current terms. Indeed, it was not until the early 1960’s
that Marshall McLuhan popularized the phrase ‘the global village’ in
predicting the impact of mass communications on the world stage. There
is no question that
advances of technology in the past half century have made it much easier
for us to travel and communicate to even the most remote parts of the
world.
Nevertheless, these
technological breakthroughs are simply enhancers of the desire; some
might say the imperative for us to help our fellow
human
beings
regardless
of national boundaries and ideologies. In Dr. Bradley’s day,
such work was not only more inconvenient, it typically came at the
risk of great peril.
A case in point was Dr. Bradley’s wife, Mamie McCollum Bradley,
a fellow missionary from South Carolinian. Mrs. Bradley died of cholera
not long after
arriving in Suqian and having just given birth to their son.
This was risky work and people like Dr. Bradley and his wife were
pioneers
in the field.
My third and final
observation returns us to the technology-intensive world of today.
I learned recently that the Medical University has
licensed the
content from its problem-based medical education curriculum to
a new medical school
that
has been created in the Republic of Vanuatu. Dr. Don Wilbur, who
has retired from our faculty, is helping to lead this effort.
Now,
if you are like me, you probably know very little about Vanuatu,
so here is the Cliff’s Notes version. Vanuatu is an archipelago
of over 80 islands in Micronesia located about 1,000 miles east of
Australia. The total population
of Vanuatu is around 200,000 and the New Economics Foundation recently
ranked Vanuatu as the ‘Happiest Nation on the Planet’.
All things considered, not a bad place to start a medical school. The
content adapted from MUSC is delivered
by internet and instruction is guided by health professional tutors.
This leads me to
my third observation which is that we tend to falsely dichotomize our
domestic and international activities
into separate
domains. In reality,
the medical curriculum developed for our students in South
Carolina can serve as the core for training of physicians in Micronesia.
There is
far more overlap
than there is disparity in the educational needs of these two
groups of students.
To summarize, then,
my three observations are as follows:
First, MUSC draws
as much from other countries as we give back. The migration of talent
to this campus
is a rich gift from
the rest of
the world, and
we are deeply in debt to the many countries from which our
faculty and students
derive.
Second, international
work is not a recent development for MUSC constituents. This university
can take pride in a tradition
of
global outreach
that began with pioneers such as Dr. John Wilson Bradley
more than a century
ago.
Third, there is continuity
between our domestic activities and our international work. We should
not view them as competitive
in any
way with each other.
Rather, we should look for opportunities for our work in
one domain to complement our
ability to contribute in the other.
In concluding these
remarks, I would like to take a moment to recognize those who planned
this convocation and have
worked tirelessly to
provide an attractive
showcase for our global outreach. Please join me in thanking
them now. Finally, we are about to recognize a number
of our peers for
their
outstanding work
in teaching, research, and clinical service. It is always
difficult to select the
recipients of these awards from amongst so many deserving
individuals. I want to congratulate the honorees for
their extraordinary
efforts
and for
the distinction
that they bring to the Medical University. Most importantly,
I want to thank our entire faculty for giving this university
the
power
to make
the world
a better place.
Thank you very much. |
