Umkc Dental School, OEC And UMKC

Q: The following is an excerpt from an E-mail I recieved today. It is regarding a proposal that is being considered where I attended Dental School. carabelli "Orthodontic Education, Ltd (OEC) will donate $5 million to UMKC dental School The school will receive approximately $2.5 million annually UMKC Orthodontic Department will expand to 32 residents from its current 8 24 of the residents will be picked by OCE The residents will agree to work for OCE for a period of 7 yrs after graduation UMKC Dental School is the first accredited dental school to consider the terms"

A:I was manning a booth at a recent Dental Conference, trying to make like I was some big deal big shot. Along comes a colleague, an old guy, who has and is donating a ton of money to the University of Pennsylvania Dental School. Suddenly he realizes that they are building a stand-alone cosmetic dentistry complex (supposedly for teaching but really for their own flunky hired guns) to COMPETE WITH HIM! Right across the street from his place! You should have seen the spittle coming out of his mouth. The smoke out of his ears! I wish I has a camcorder with me! This is the

first I have heard of it and it would be *new*. What I posted was all the info I received, except for names and addresses of various UMKC officials if one wished to write to them. I am an ortho resident at Saint Louis University, and I too heard some disturbing rumors this weekend from separate credible sources. From what I understand, the deal at UMKC has already gone through. It was a shock to everyone there, including the program chair, who had know idea what was going on until it was too late. Lazzarra went above the department to school deans and chancellors, who are motivated by money, and probably don't fully understand the implications of what they did.