President’s Letter
Posted: March 1, 2010
Friends,
As you read this issue of Still Magazine, Founder’s Day will recently have been celebrated on both campuses, including Still-A-Bration in Kirksville. These marvelous events marked the founding in 1892 of our great institution of higher learning by a caring and visionary physician, Dr. Andrew Taylor Still.
He began the American School of Osteopathy in a two-room building in Kirksville, Mo., and in 1894 the first graduating class consisted of five women and 16 men. The school underwent many positive changes over the years, growing into the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1971 and ultimately giving rise to A.T. Still University of Health Sciences in 2002.
Today, A.T. Still University, with five schools on two campuses and students and faculty working and studying both on and off site, still adheres to the same founding principles of whole-person healthcare. Even after the amazing transformation of more than a century, ATSU continues to focus on the central values of student learning in order to graduate in 2009 the highly trained and compassionate healthcare professionals whom Dr. Still envisioned back in 1892.
We are not yet finished with the transformational process. The University Strategic Planning Committee is well on its way to completing its recommendations by summer, including new mission and vision statements; the Board is actively reviewing its own policies as its members continue to support the work that we all do here; and all five schools consistently engage in assessment in order to improve what is already excellent. Since my last letter in this magazine, SHM has hired its first full-time faculty, ASDOH is implementing a web-based dental practice management system, new ATSU signage has gone up in Kirksville, and many faculty and students have made significant contributions around the globe. Indeed, ATSU’s international educational efforts are growing.
Here at home, as the country wrestles with healthcare issues, ATSU is poised to contribute significantly to the needs of the nation. Because providing primary care and helping underserved populations are at the heart of our values, I believe that ATSU will become an important force in the healthcare picture of the United States. We are already making great strides in this direction.
As we move forward into a promising future, keeping in mind Dr. Still’s founding principles, I know that ATSU will become even better than it is today. I am proud to be a part of this wonderful university and gratified by the splendid service all of you — faculty, staff, alumni, Board members, and friends — have provided and continue to provide to all our many communities across the country and around the world.
Peace,
Jack Magruder, President