Optometry School Deans and Presidents Meet in Atlanta

Optometry School Deans and Presidents Meet in Atlanta

The deans and presidents of 24 optometry schools and colleges across the United States and Canada came together the first week of March for the ASCO Board of Directors’ spring meeting. The ASCO Board of Directors is made up of the deans or presidents of each of the 23 schools and colleges in the United States; guests at the meeting included the deans of the two Canadian optometry schools/colleges as well as Chief Academic Officers from several institutions. This meeting was held in conjunction with SECO’s annual conference in Atlanta.

Among the many things discussed were:

• Progress on NBEO’s Part III exam revision.
• How schools/colleges are addressing the ramifications presented by the spread of the Coronavirus.
• Future funding of the Optometry Gives Me Life campaign. 
• Fundraising plans for March – June 2020.
• Updates from the AAO-ASCO Task Force on Sub-specialization.
• Considered signing onto a proclamation presented by the New England College of Optometry (NECO).
• Discussed plans for an Optometric Education Research Workshop slated to be held during the AAO conference in the fall.

Actions taken included:

• Approval of proposed association governance changes, including revisions to officer titles and responsibilities and a change in pricing policies as well as adding a Provisional Member category and an expansion of member service offerings to Associate and Affiliate members.
• Approval of the revised Framework for Developing Optometric Curriculum Guidelines and Educational Standards for Optometric Surgery.
• Approval of priority initiatives that came out of the March 2019 Opening Our Eyes summit on the future of optometric education.
• Revise and approve the budget assumptions for the FY21 budget under development (to be approved in June 2020).
• Approval of the 2019 Partnership Endowment distribution (subsequently delayed by decision of the Executive Committee due to the impact of COVID-19).
• Approval to explore options for dissolving or restructuring the Partnership Endowment.
• Approval, Nominating and Awards Committee (NAC) recommendation for 2020 ASCO Award winners.
• Approval of the Terms of Reference for the Applicant Pool Advisory Committee (APAC) and the Government Affairs Committee (GAC).

While in Atlanta, the Board also participated in a diversity and cultural competency workshop and held a joint AOA-ASCO Board meeting, where topics such as advocacy/scope of practice, regulatory changes, sub-specialization efforts, and strategic language choices were discussed. Plans were made for a number of new joint task forces to focus on these topics.

The next meeting of the ASCO Board of Directors is scheduled for June 23rd.