Chancellor's Notes

May 19, 2006

As our stay in Baton Rouge comes to a close, our stay on the Finnjet is, too.  Everyone and everything must be off the ship no later than 12:00 noon on June 4, 2006. Our contract also stipulates that we must leave it as we found it. Those of you living on the ship have been sent full details, so please refer to that. The Finnjet filled a huge need for us these last eight months and played a crucial role in our recovery. It fostered an unprecedented esprit de corps among students from all of our schools who dont normally have the opportunity to get to know each other as well as they did living next door or down the hall from each other. At a special time in history, this ship provided a safe harbor for many of our faculty, staff, and studentsa haven and a bond that will never be forgotten.

Not a moment too soon, Stanislaus Hall reopens today. If you are a student with a room assignment, you may begin moving in.  Should you have any questions regarding Student Housing you can email aehousing@lsuhsc.edu or call (504) 568-6260.  The hours of operation for check-in are Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  To accommodate students  Saturday and Sunday hours will be from 12:00 noon - 5:00 p.m.  Please check in at the Student Housing office located at 1900 Perdido Street, Room 210.

The Commercial Housing Options page on our website will be updated as new leads become available, so be sure to keep checking  http://www.lsuhsc.edu/no/administration/housing/ .

Dr. Sam McClugage, Associate Dean of Admissions, reports that the entering School of Medicines class of 2006 was filled last week. The current snapshot of that class is: A total of 182 students have been admitted to date into the class, with 10 students accepted into the rural track and 8 students into the combined MD/PhD program. The applicant pool remained as high as it has been in past years with a total of over 800 Louisiana residents applying for positions into our school. The number of applicants for the rural track exceeded any of the previous years. In past years, LSU School of Medicine has enjoyed one of the lowest turnover rates in the country based upon the number of applicants who eventually enroll into our medical school out of the pool of those accepted. Due to the effects of Katrina, this percentage which has usually been below 15% in past years will most likely be closer to 22% which is still a very remarkable statistic when one considers all that has gone on this year, including asking all applicants to resubmit their applications to our medical school after we evacuated to Baton Rouge. There will be a rank list that continues to be used over the summer months in the event that students holding positions in the entering class elect to go to another medical school to which they become accepted.

Dean Eric Hovland, DDS, reports that the entering dental freshman class of 2006 is nearly finalized. This year LSU School of Dentistry received 232 applications for the dental program.  Fifty-six have been accepted, the majority of which are Louisiana residents and two of which are Arkansas residents.  An additional four will be accepted soon.  The grade point average for accepted applicants is in the 3.6 to 3.7 range, and the average DAT score is between 19 and 20.  Dr. Jim Weir, Assistant Dean for Student Admissions and professor and head of the department of oral pathology, said that this years applicants have been the strongest ever in his 16-year career as dean of admissions.  It is good news that Katrina has not dampened the enthusiasm of prospective students for LSUSD.

In an effort to accommodate the training needs of all students, a new 78-chair clinical facility at LSU South Campus is nearing completion.  The clinic from this second teaching clinic will be used by next years senior dental students, dental hygiene students and residents.  The original 48-chair clinic at South Campus will continue to be used primarily for the junior dental student program.  The expected date of completion for the new clinic is June 31.

We will graduate 471 students at the 132^nd Commencement May 20^th at 4:30 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge. Some of our faculty and students will come full circle on Saturday. The PMAC they saw at the beginning of this odyssey  may be hard for them to recognize now. When they last saw it, the PMAC  was serving as the temporary medical operations staging area where they volunteered to help care for patients evacuated from hurricane Katrina devastated areas.

And dont forget about the LSUHSC Welcome Home Block Party on Bolivar Street on June 10^th. The event is for the whole family and is shaping up to be a good time for all. Youll be seeing more about it in the coming weeks, but please put it on your calendars if you havent already.