New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD) recently introduced the inaugural issue of its Journal of the Academy of Distinguished Educators (JADE), published by NYUCD.
An online-only, open-access journal, JADE is the publications component of the NYU Academy of Distinguished Educators. The mission of the Academy is to enhance overall teaching at NYUCD and to stimulate excitement among teachers around their intellectual content.
JADE intends to invite experts in higher education to discuss “thorny issues” confronting higher education, while also fostering interdisciplinary and interprofessional collaboration, according to NYUCD.
The inaugural issue features an article by Charles N. Bertolami, DDS, DMedSc, Herman Robert Fox Dean of NYUCD, titled “The Dental Education Bubble: Are We Ready for a LEED-Style Rating?” Bertolami uses the LEED rating system as a prototype that, in his words, “could be adapted to dental education in order to give dental school applicants, faculty members, governmental officials, the media, and the public a more open and honest appraisal of what a given educational program has to offer and what the educational product is really expected to be.”
Allan J. Formicola, DDS, MS, Dean Emeritus at the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine, argues in his rejoinder that the rating system proposed will not improve the profession, because the current accrediting process does take into consideration differences in dental schools’ missions and goals, “but assures that all schools, new and established, meet standards that are accepted by the academy, the practicing community, and the licensing community.”
Meanwhile, Ronald Bayer, PhD, professor and co-chair of the Center for the History of Ethics & Public Health in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, writes on “what the state has a duty to do to assure equitable access to healthcare services, to create just health care systems, and to secure the social conditions that promote health and limit disease and disability.” In his article, he asserts that a core mission of dental education in the United States ought to be understanding the social forces that may foster or impede the path to dental justice.”
