Dean's Update

When I sit down to write these updates, I am usually looking outward from the Department to make a connection either to the college, the university, or to the health care profession in some capacity. With this update, I want to turn the focus more inwardly towards the department. I believe the Health Services Administration Department is on the verge of an extraordinary opportunity. As the new undergraduate program comes online, the new emphasis on healthcare and the study of healthcare on the Xavier campus combines with the general sense of excitement created by the new buildings on campus, the possibilities for the future is exciting.

It is this possibility that made me even more excited when I read the tagline created by the department: Men and women for others: Thinkers, Inspirers, and Leaders in Health Services Administration. Besides the words themselves and what they communicate, the excitement I felt was due to the message behind the words. The message that I see is that there will not be settling for merely “taking courses” going on under this tagline, especially in the second sentence. If the graduates from the department are going to b e leaders in the healthcare arena, the faculty will have to help inspire them to think. The future leaders in healthcare must be able to think creatively, strategically, logically, and often all three at the same time when trying to communicate to audiences that have very little in common. As powerful of a message as that is, it would have been incomplete without the message of the first sentence. If healthcare is the be the best profession it can be, and if the Department is going to live up its long and distinguished heritage, and if the faculty, students, and alumni are going to be examples of the expectation created when one says Catholic Jesuit University, then being men and women for others must be a part of what we do each and every day.

Why am I excited about this tagline? It sends the right message, at the right time, in the right place about a group poised to make an impact in the immediate future. Not bad for a couple of sentences, right?