Making Trouble

Last week I failed to mention an interesting series of events. On Tuesday, my one afternoon off early from Derm, I went to AZCOM to take care of a bunch of administrative stuff. One of my main goals was to look over my LORs and hopefully my Dean's Letter as well, seeing as how I wouldn't have much opportunity over the next few months when applications are due.

Well as I walk into the Dean's office, I get told that students can't look at LORs or Dean's Letters anymore! They asked; "Didn't you get the e-mail?" Ah, no. I had been working all morning and the e-mail had only gone out the previous night. I was pissed, but held my breath since chewing out the staff does no good. I read the e-mail at home at home and was further disgusted by the lack of explanation and "stick it to you" attitude. And then I waited 24 hours to cool off.

Wednesday night I wrote an e-mail to the Dean and our class officers explaining that the e-mail was incomplete and the decision to restrict our access was wrong. I outlined, without being too pissy, four good reasons including: poor timing due to our brand new Dean writing letters on students she doesn't know; forms we submitted for the Dean to consider were written under the old policy; the policy changed three times on a little over a year; and classmates that knew the previous Dean were able to look at and/or discuss their Letter's with him.

That set off a firestorm.

Tucker, the class Prez and I ended up meeting with the Dean on Friday after Dr. G., the university Pres and many others got involved. She made a good case for us to not look at the Letters (more impact on residency PDs) and agreed that the decision wasn't explained very well. She promised to consider Tucker's proposal that we be given the option to look at the Letters this year. She also agreed to send out an e-mail explaining the decision and how it benefited us. It was a friendly, positive meeting that included lots of sharing of ideas and thoughts.

As our new Dean, I think she appreciated hearing some of the preconceptions we had going into this process given our school's reputation of providing little support third and fourth year. She also appreciated hearing about how her office could be more helpful to us with guidance through the residency process and openness in communication.

I don't know what changes will come from the meeting but I had a chance to air my grievances. And I think meeting the Dean this may benefit my Dean's Letter (she knows I care) instead of blackballing me like I initially feared. She may accept all or part of Tucker's recommendations, but at least she will do a better looking at this decision from the students' perspective.