Class of 2008 Commencement Address

Dean Park, members of the graduating class, honored guests, faculty, parents, spouses and friends:

It was exactly 60 years ago that I was sitting in an auditorium—just as you are today. I, too, was graduating from dental school. No, it was not UCLA School of Dentistry. Your dental school did not yet exist. No, it was not the Harvard School of Dental Medicine—my college grades were not good enough for that place.

There we sat at the graduation ceremony—all 150 of us, happy to have survived the reign of terror experienced during the previous 4 years at our Dental School. But our Class should not have been surprised. We had been forewarned by an alumnus. I still remember his words— "I didn't graduate from NYU Dental—I escaped!"

What a terrible thing to say to us and for me to repeat to you! But as we went through our 4 years, we learned that the denunciation was fully justified!

Although most of our Class members had served in World War II immediately before starting dental school, the NYU dental faculty managed to reduce these men to quivering masses of protoplasm! What kind of an educational institution were we in? It turns out that during that era, teaching by terror was not limited to NYU, but seemed to be widespread at most dental schools.

Several years later, through a series of favorable events, I had the good fortune to become a young faculty member at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. During that early period of my academic career, I was a member of the Department of Oral Pathology. The head of that department was a young, charismatic, exciting, and energetic Norwegian by the name of Reidar Sognnaes. He was an outstanding teacher and scientist. Reidar Sognnaes had one quality for which many of his young protégés were most grateful. He constantly managed to find opportunities for them to develop and grow academically. He enhanced their careers by finding special occasions for them to present their achievements and ideas at major scientific meetings. Importantly, he sought and found fellowship support from Federal and private sources to give them some financial security until they could become independent investigators.

Perhaps Reidar Sognnaes' most important contribution to dental education was the unique postdoctoral program he developed at Harvard. It was the forerunner of subsequent degree programs at Harvard and elsewhere. It combined clinical specialty training and research. From such programs anew breed of clinical teacher arose, ushering in an explosion of new knowledge. Both teaching and clinical practice benefited enormously from these bright and challenging young academics. Clearly, their appearance on the scene was one of the key factors that helped initiate a drastic transformation of dental education.

I have dubbed this new epoch, the "Era of Enlightenment"—both in teaching and in clinical practice.

It is now almost 50 years since Reidar Sognnaes left Harvard to become the "founding dean" of the UCLA School of Dentistry. He created your School from "scratch." He did an excellent job building the physical facilities, recruiting a fine faculty, and attracting outstanding dental students.

One of the many reasons I am delighted to be at UCLA addressing you today is to have the opportunity to pay homage to Reidar Sognnaes, and to give you a bit of history that is too easily forgotten or lost over time.

Speaking of history, you will recall my earlier statement that in 1948, in my graduating class of 150 dental students at NYU, there were no women and no minorities. This situation was not peculiar just to NYU. It was universal throughout dental schools in the USA, except for the two traditional black dental schools at Howard University and Meharry Medical College.

This state of affairs changed dramatically following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. It took this tragedy to awaken the country from its stupor regarding restricted access to higher and professional education. Suddenly, the following year, in 1969, educational institutions, including medical and dental schools, began a concerted effort to recruit and admit women and minority students. Year by year their combined numbers increased.

Today, in your graduating Class of 2008, women and minorities make up 45 percent of the Class! Exactly 40 years ago, I was appointed dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. I was the first Jew in Harvard University's 332 years of existence to become Dean of one of its Schools! It is noteworthy that last year, Harvard University again broke with tradition: 371 years after its founding, Harvard appointed the first woman to be its president! To give you some perspective as to the time-frame these years cover, please note that Harvard was founded 16 years after the Pilgrims first stepped onto Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Clearly, no one can accuse Harvard of acting hastily regarding such administrative appointments!

As dean of Harvard's Dental School, I now had the opportunity to "put my money where my mouth was." I had the opportunity to wipe away the dental education shortcomings I had experienced at NYU.

During my 22 years as dean, I got to know, encourage and advise individual dental students and young faculty members. We discussed their careers, their dreams and hopes, or any matters that might have been troubling them. Our dental students were given opportunities at annual faculty-student retreats to critique the School—its policies, its curriculum, and its faculty. And they did it well. With surgical precision they brought to light our deficiencies from their perspective as students. And we listened and took corrective action!