Dr. James T. GirvanDeanTHE STATE OF THE COLLEGEAs Dean, I bring you greetings from the staff and faculty in the College ofHealth Sciences at Boise State University. You are a recipient of our2007-2008 Annual Report. I hope that you take time to read about themany accomplishments of staff, faculty, and students during this past year.It is our privilege to serve the citizens of the Treasure Valley and the Stateof Idaho. As always, please know that your comments, suggestions, and/orrecommendations are welcomed. You are important to us.The 2007-2008 academic year was very productive. As you will read lateron in this letter, several milestone accomplishments were attained. At theoutset, I want to take this opportunity to thank our community partners(hospitals, clinics, health districts, physician offices, insurers, nonprofits,state agencies, individual and corporate foundation donors, and sisterinstitutions), our advisory board members, the Boise State Universityadministration, faculty, staff, and students for the support, guidance, andencouragement provided to our programs and to me as Dean. This past year was stimulatingand rewarding due, in large part, to these meaningful collaborations and friendships.All programs in the College continue to experience record applications from qualified students.Pressure still exists to increase the number of students admitted to meet the ever-increasingcommunity demand for health professionals. A first step in the process of helping address theshortage of nurses occurred in May of 2008 when the new building for nursing (and for studenthealth services) was begun as this will add more instructional, laboratory, and office space fornursing so that student enrollments can be increased. The building will be named the “NorcoBuilding” to recognize the lead donor, The Norco Foundation under the leadership of JimKissler and his father Larry Kissler, the founder of Norco, St. Luke’s, and Saint AlphonsusRegional Medical Centers both contributed major gifts as did Ed and Shirley Bews and theAssociated Students of Boise State University (for the student health center portion of thebuilding). Scheduled completion date is July 2009. Again, thanks to each of our donors formaking this new facility a reality.At this time, I would like to highlight several of the accomplishments, facts of interest, and/ormilestone events that occurred this past year. The items below are not listed in any particularorder.• Faculty, staff, and community advisory board members completed a new version of theCollege of Health Sciences’ Strategic Directions document• Approximately $507,000 in scholarship monies were awarded to 307 College of HealthSciences students enrolling for the 2008-2009 academic year• Faculty and exchanges occurred with Hangzhou Nursing College in China highlighted bythe three-month visit of two Chinese nursing faculty, Qian Ying and Tao Yue Xian• Exploration for more faculty/student and research partnerships is occurring withuniversities and hospitals in Japan (Respiratory Care faculty member Lonny Ashworthtraveled there in June and <strong>Feb</strong>ruary), Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, and Ecuador(nursing faculty members Molly Prengaman and Mikal Black traveled there in March)• More than 90% of the College of Health Sciences graduates chose to live and work inIdaho.• Graduates of the Departments of Radiologic Sciences and Respiratory Care received100% passing rates on national exams• Eight health sciences students gave poster presentations at the annual UndergraduateResearch Dayii