Did You Know?
By: Dr. Loretta Jackson-Williams
The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) is organizationally a branch campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford and is separately accredited by SACSCOC. SACSCOC is the accreditation body for all degree-granting institutions of higher learning in the Southern states. SACSCOC ensures that all institutions follow the U.S. Department of Education rules and regulations which ensures that our institution can participate in student loan programs and apply for federal grants. The Office of Academic Affairs is organizationally responsible for all schools following these regulations and manages issues that are common to all schools such as graduation. Adherence to these national standards enables students to obtain financial resources for medical school and ensures that we have faculty for the education mission.
The Office of Academic Affairs represents the academic mission here at the UMMC both internally and externally. External representation is particularly important with the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL). The IHL is our governing body and responsible for policy and financial oversight of all eight public institutions of higher learning in Mississippi. The UMMC is a public institution; however, remember, that the UMMC is organizationally a branch campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Therefore, the interest of UMMC is taken to our governing body through the Chancellor of the University of Mississippi, Dr. Glen Boyce. The chancellor appoints the vice chancellor and dean of the School of Medicine, combined position and the vice chancellor appoints the associate vice chancellor for academic affairs. The Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dr. Scott Rodgers, represents the academic mission of UMMC. Through this representation at the IHL and adherence to state rules and regulation, UMMC ensures that the SOM has the infrastructure and resources for the medical education mission.
The UMMC is a large academic health science campus with the primary missions of education, healthcare, and research. These missions are accomplished through a complex interplay between the schools, the hospitals and clinics, and centers. The School of Medicine is one of six schools at the UMMC and has to also follow rules and regulations of the UMMC. As noted above, this ensures that students are able to obtain financial resources for medical school and that the school has the infrastructure, faculty and resources for the medical education program. In addition, the school must adhere to the standards established by the accreditation body for medical education programs leading to the MD degree, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). This enables graduates of the program to participate in the licensure process to practice medicine. A significant portion of the medical education program takes place within the clinical environment that is primarily responsible for patient care. The clinical environment has its own set of rules and regulations focused on the best quality, effective, and safe care of patients.
The School of Medicine began on the Oxford campus in 1903 and operated continuously as a two-year school for more than half a century. In the summer of 1955, the school was moved to Jackson and expanded to include the third and fourth years. The first class of the four-year program graduated in June 1957. The school’s primary mission then, as it is now, is to produce physicians to take care of all of the citizens of the state of Mississippi.
This is the background for the undergraduate medical educational program here at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine.