Inclusion seemed to be the over-arching principle at our most recent board meeting. We met about a month ago in conjunction with the Undergraduate Workshop held in Chicago (thanks to Loyola University for their hospitality) and had a very full agenda. While many issues surfaced and were discussed at our meeting, how to best represent the many different members of AUPHA seemed to rise to the top. I believe the Board members would agree with me in saying that we all want to support your various programs and fight for your needs, but we do that while listening to a number of different voices. Let me give you some examples.
One of the agenda items continues to be our global health initiatives. The Board reviewed a nicely crafted proposal from the Global Health Management Faculty Forum. This group continues to look at the opportunities open to AUPHA and the ROI of a number of options. Among the most promising include partnerships with associations similar to ours such as those in Australia, Europe, China, and with the International Hospital Federation. The Global Health Management Faculty Forum is working on ideas that will best help our various programs and students, without stepping on the toes of AUPHA programs who already are heavily involved on the global stage. They are also looking at how AUPHA can best be involved without creating any financial burden on the organization.
A second hot topic, if you will, is the always growing use of technology and online education programs. An important group of our members reminded us of this at our meeting. Many programs, including at those of more than half of the members of the Board, now teach online. Some programs offer online support in face-to-face courses. Some of us have hybrid programs consisting of both online and classroom components. A number of our member organizations offer totally online programs at both the undergraduate and graduate level. The challenge before the Board is how best to represent the entire membership of AUPHA, since we have a variety of ideas on what online education should or should not include. The Board is committed to work with the Online Teaching and Technology Faculty Forum to tackle these issues and we encourage any of you interested in this topic to join. The Board has also voted on keeping online education as a standing agenda item for all of our Board meetings. You may be interested to know that in our ongoing discussions with CAHME, we have been informed that their Board continues to review the criteria for accreditation. They have received the message from some of our members on the restrictive demand for 120 contact hours of in-person teaching. We are waiting to see what the CAHME Board decides.
Finally, the AUPHA Board also decided to keep diversity as a standing agenda item. We are always looking for ways to support diversity in the association and in our programs. Our discussions were supported by one of our newest Board members, Mr. Rodney Taylor, who reinforced that what’s most important is giving all members the opportunity to be involved in AUPHA and the variety of initiatives we offer, including the chance to shape our biggest events and/or be a member of the AUPHA leadership. Inclusion, he suggested, not just diversity, is the key. I hope all of the members of AUPHA feel this. We have tried over the past several years to include all of our members, succeeding in some areas and needing work in others. We are happy to get your continued input and ideas. Please know you’re all valued.