If I were Dr. Hernandez...

[shockandawe]

The time has come for improvements to be made and students must demand these improvements such as improving the faculty and applying for state approval in places such as NY, FL and CA.

Although, I must admit, that over the past year, improvements of Spartans facilities and relationship with the St. Lucian government has been made, nothing compares to Saba's approval by the CA boards...

Improvements need to be made and they need to be made now, otherwise, I would call for the resignation of Dr. *******. Sorry, but there is no other way around it. If I were Dr. Hernandez, I would say to Dr. *******, "You're FIRED!" And then I would probably tell Guru and "your fired too" and let's just start over...

Saba started sometime in 1993. Spartan has been around since 1980. Before, we could always argue that CA doesn't seem to care about giving any of the carib schools, other than the big 3 schools their approval but now that Saba has proved that they can get it, there is absolutely NO REASON why Spartan should not be trying to acheive the same results.. Not to mention, at least, approval from NY and FL... Improvements need to be made, this guy (Dr. *******) really needs to wake up and start doing some work for this school... Spartan students do their rotations at some of the EXACT same places as Saba. Why aren't improvements, in regard to state approval, being made??? -s&a

[wcb22]

who are you talking about ? ralph, or his dad?

[shockandawe]

who are you talking about ? ralph, or his dad?


I was talking about the dad but whoever is the President of the school... -s&a

[wcb22]

for all intents and purposes, Ralph is running the school. Dr. Hernandez is getting up there in age, so his son is operating things. The sad truth is this... it has to be important to him. is this just another business to him? or does it mean a lot to him personally that this school advances? i don't know. he owns many a businesses.

i know that the tuition at spartan is very little compared to most schools. for the longest time you could say SABA was the best bang for your buck, and now you can really say it, with CA approval. you can't expect a 5 tier school from a 2 tier price. you'd better get a 5 tier school with a 5 tier price (SGU).

let me ask you this... if spartan were to get CA approval today, would you be willing to pay $5000 more/semester for tuition? that might be what it takes to get things rolling.

[ZAATARI]

Getting CA approvals is not an option anymore but a matter of survival,during my encounter with few board members and educators it was mentioned to me that Some state boards do not have the resources even to send evaluators at schools expanse and has to relay on something reliable ,some asked the federation for help[OH,NC,OK,KY,CT,..],others relied on the reports from CA[VT,?IN,NM,?TX],so things are changing due to the stunning spread of new medical schools in the carribeans every year ,nothing wrong of new schools but some carribean governments not setting high standards for schools and what is strange that the St Lucian government issued 4 permits for med schools in a country of 160.000 populations!!! I am not trying to praise or put any school down but presenting issues that might effect all of us in the near future.

[shockandawe]

for all intents and purposes, Ralph is running the school. ....
let me ask you this... if spartan were to get CA approval today, would you be willing to pay $5000 more/semester for tuition? that might be what it takes to get things rolling.


As Saba, just demonstrated, It's not all about the money... They charge in the $5,000 range and they have 50 or so students per class and they acheived the same approval from CA as sgu and sgu charges in the $12,000 range and they have over 300 people per class. Even though Saba charges less than half of what sgu charges, Saba sends all of their students to USA hospitals, whereas good percentage of sgu, AUC and Ross students go to England to do their clinicals... I don't necessarily believe that AUC or sgu are any better than Saba. But my point is that Saba proved that it doesn't take big bucks for state approval..

If Spartan were to raise their tuition, a lot of people that are paying out of their own pockets, would no longer be able to go to med. school... If they have about 30 people per class, 10 classes, 3 semesters per year, $3,500 dollars per semester, then they are making about $3,150,000 per year.... Where is all this money going???? Even if it took a whole million to pay their expenses, which is a gross over-estimation, they still would have 2 million left over...

If Dr. Hernandez's son was a good business man, he would invest his money back in Spartan and with CA approval, he could easily have 60 people per class and double his profits...

What I am saying is that, I do not think that raising the tuition is always the right answer. For example, there are many carib and off-shore schools with high tuitions that cannot get CA approval and I think that it is more due to poor management, poor administration and due to the greed for the quick buck... -s&a

[ZAATARI]

I do not think the faculty salaries too high [non from USA academic pool], few months ago I was asked by major medical school/hospital in England to have academic title and participate in their board questions/CME's program [they contacted me based on holding 4 boards and my records in my speciality],I sent my CV ,one member was little curious and looked at Spartan website[which is fine],he told me "did you know that your school does not have any professor?I said what do you mean,I graduated 20 yrs ago and not following their progress,he said under the faculty lists he could not identify from the list any with professor title,most assistant professors and instructors,after our conversation I opened the site and I guess he was right[interesting observation and I did not see its important] but that was not an issue for the selection process. My point here is to upgrade the faculty before anything else because people looking at everything if we are carribean grads.sadly all carribean grads are stereotyped .
one other observation in my career is one state does not approve Spartan and I had no idea so I applied to that state hospital which runs by med school,after all the interviews completed I was told I was the most qualified and the director was very impressed with my credentials,I looked and the board site and saw the school was not approved then I told the medical school hospital "I withdraw my application ],again who said life is fair!!!!!

[shockandawe]

I do not think the faculty salaries too high [non from USA academic pool], few months ago I was asked by major medical school/hospital in England to have academic title and participate in their board questions/CME's program [they contacted me based on holding 4 boards and my records in my speciality],I sent my CV ,one member was little curious and looked at Spartan website[which is fine],he told me "did you know that your school does not have any professor?I said what do you mean,I graduated 20 yrs ago and not following their progress,he said under the faculty lists he could not identify from the list any with professor title,most assistant professors and instructors,after our conversation I opened the site and I guess he was right[interesting observation and I did not see its important] but that was not an issue for the selection process. My point here is to upgrade the faculty before anything else because people looking at everything if we are carribean grads.sadly all carribean grads are stereotyped .
one other observation in my career is one state does not approve Spartan and I had no idea so I applied to that state hospital which runs by med school,after all the interviews completed I was told I was the most qualified and the director was very impressed with my credentials,I looked and the board site and saw the school was not approved then I told the medical school hospital "I withdraw my application ],again who said life is fair!!!!!


Two good points that you have observed in your career, ZAATARI and that is why the students should put state licensure as the #1 most important issue, not only when Dr. ******* comes to St. Lucia but each and every day... There really isn't anything as important especially in light of Saba leap jumping over Spartan and getting CA approval.. And SMU will be coming right after... I am very sure that they will also be getting CA approval. This should be a wake call for the Spartan administration/president/VP whoever is in charge... I don't think that we were as concerned when we were students but, the times were different and things have changed...

They (the students) shouldn't even let ****** speak unless he speaks about state licensures and I would ask him, "What have you done lately???" "Saba isn't half as old as Spartan and they got CA, what are you doing for Spartan?" I would start by upgrading the faculty and although I do not believe that tuition should be the issue, if it is true that only by raising the tuition, the school may obtain licensures in all 50 states, then I think it must be done, because there really is no point in doing all that work of passing the USMLE, obtaining residency, etc, etc, for nothing... -s&a