Development of student academies at Alpert Medical School.

VOLUME 93 NO. 8 AUGUST 2010 The design of the new Alpert Medical School (AMS) building provides an opportunity to address issues that have arisen as a result of recent changes in the institution. These changes, including the establishment of a “standard” admissions route, changes in administrative structure and leadership, curriculum reform, and the on-going increase in class size, require us to reexamine our medical school identity and the way in which we define ourselves as a community. An additional change, the move of the medical school away from College Hill will have a profound impact on the environment and culture in which our students are educated. Many medical schools in the United States divide their students into smaller groupings upon matriculation. Harvard established their society structure in the 1980s, the University of Iowa in 1999, UCLA in 2002, Case in 2003, and Johns Hopkins in 2006, to name a few. While there are many potential models for student communities, the shared purpose is to create smaller networks of faculty and students within the larger institution. These networks are thought to provide a more supportive educational experience through increased contact with a reduced number of peers and a small number of involved faculty and staff. A system of student communities serves to model teamwork and team learning. It can foster habits of mind that are essential for the training of physicians, and yet are not explicitly taught. It provides an administrative structure through which the institution can provide individualized personal, academic and career advising. Finally, such a system potentially provides the medical school with a formal means by which to bring much that we value about the current Brown community along with us to the new building.