American Student Dental Association

As anyone who was a dental student at the time can attest, dental school in the 60’s was akin to a military-style boot camp. Many of the teaching faculty and clinical instructors at that time had served in the Armed Forces and were committed to an authoritarian style of ‘schooling’ and an archaic form of education. Schools had strict personal grooming rules about facial hair, attire, and length of hair; and some institutions even subjected their students to fingernail inspections. The student bodies were mostly white, middle-class males with very few women and minority students. There was no system of due process - students could be expelled for any reason with no available recourse. Given a host of such inequities, it became self-evident that dental students needed to organize, a trend which could already be found within several dental school campuses throughout the country. However, dental students (unlike their colleagues in the other health professions) lacked an overarching national organization to nurture and promote such efforts. Unfortunately, unlike the other health professions. the American Dental Association had an historic aversion and/or antipathy toward the inclusion of a viable and representative student section within its organizational structure. But in 1969, circumstances created an opportunity. That year the federal government, through the Appalachian Regional Commission, offered the Student American Medical Association (SAMA) a $1 million grant to coordinate professional student involvement in the Appalachia Project. Students in all health care disciplines, including medicine, pharmacy, nursing, and dentistry, were to be recruited through their respective national associations to provide inter-disciplinary indigent health care services. When organizers attempted to invite the dental student association, they found that no such group existed. This presented a real quandary – no dental student organization, no grant. At the time, Chuck Payton, the president of SAMA from the Medical School at the University of California at San Francisco, and Ray Satler, the president of the Student American Pharmacy Association (also from UCSF), approached Dennis Spain (a junior at the UCSF Dental School). They explained that they needed to include dental students and asked him if he would agree to start a national association. Spain agreed, and each organization contributed advice and a modicum of financial support for his travel and other expenses. Spain decided to call his new group the Student American Dental Association (SADA), emulating the format used by the medical and pharmacy students.

Early the following year, (with the blessings of his Dean, Dr. Ben Pavone) Spain began contacting dental schools across the country to recruit students to attend an organizational meeting for a new dental student association. In the spirit of the Appalachia Project, he decided to focus on students with an interest in extra-curricular public health and community service (at the time, a relatively new area of interest for dental students), rather than traditional student leadership such as class officers and student councils. In the end, he was successful in gaining cooperation from about half of the total dental schools in the country. Spain needed to pick a date and place for this first gathering of students. With the help of a SAMA student rep at the University of Illinois Medical School in Chicago, and David Evaskus, a senior student at the U.of I. Dental School, they joined efforts to host the meeting on the weekend of Feb. 14-15 just prior to the Midwinter Meeting of the Chicago Dental Society. At the behest of his Dean, Dr. Seymour Yale, Evaskus recruited Warren Smith, a freshman dental student, to help with the housing and local transportation logistics. Dean Yale, who was a staunch supporter of student activism, gave them the keys to his office and meeting room – and that is the why and the where of the first meeting of SADA. About 30 students from approximately 26 dental schools participated, supported by meager travel stipends from their individual schools. A bunch of students crashed on the floor of Evaskus’ small apartment and a bunch crashed at Smith’s parents’ house. This was not a 5-star event. However, these informal, crowded accommodations had one fortuitous and un-anticipated benefit – drinking beer and sharing ‘war stories’ until the wee hours of the night. They each discovered that they were not alone in their grievances about dental school. Their stories were not unique. They were all suffering from the same syndrome, and this was an opportunity to do something about it. SADA was officially launched that weekend with a robust, idealistic platform and purpose: to recruit students to serve in federal health care projects; to gather information and focus on local student issues; and to formulate broad policy positions and coordinate student lobbying efforts on educational, public health, and professional issues. Until a national House of Delegates could be convened, the Chicago participants adopted an interim Constitution and Bylaws, and the following Mission Statement:

         “The Student American Dental Association is the voice of the American dental student. Our goal is to improve the dental education experience with representation, advocacy, and leadership opportunities for dental students regardless of campus or level of training. We also believe in a broader view of our place in society, and our obligation to serve those in need. As such, we promote off-campus community and interdisciplinary health programs as essential service components of our education.”

The fledgling organization was loosely divided into regions across the United States. Some of the students volunteered to be ‘regional coordinators’ in order to facilitate communications, but there were no formal titles or designations given, nor was there a formal Board of Directors. Spain was elected as President; Jack Tenenbaum from Pitt as the VP; Harry Martin from Marquette as Secretary; and Dennis Loman from Iowa as the Treasurer. The next logical step was to create a formal House of Delegates structure and host a national meeting of Delegates. SADA officers decided that the best date and venue would be October in Las Vegas to coincide with the annual meeting of the ADA. What did SADA actually do during that first year? Under the leadership of its VP, Jack Tenenbaum, students were recruited to serve in the aforementioned SAMA-sponsored federal public health programs known as the Appalachia Project and the American Indian Health Program. SADA also recruited Jonathan Nash, a junior dental student at NYU and classmate of Jack Dillenberg (SADA northeast regional coordinator) , as their Chairman of Dental Licensure Reform. Nash had formed a student-dentist alliance called the National Council for the Improvement of Dental Licensure (NCIDL) which was devoted to publicizing factual data about the inequities in the licensure system as well as lobbying for change on the national and state levels. This liaison enabled SADA to promote a national advocacy platform which was already of direct concern to all dental students. Although it was widely circulated that SADA had 13,000 student members, that was more of a public relations gambit than anything real and substantive. That number merely represented an inflated total of ‘interested’ dental students from around the country. In reality, there was no official list of dues-paying, “card-carrying”, members of SADA. The major effort that first year was to lobby for financial support. Although official recognition from the ADA was not as yet forthcoming, positive momentum was building from other entities. In 1970, the American Association of Dental Schools (AADS) decided to initiate plans for their own student membership section with the informal expectation of some communication and loose collaboration with SADA. This development helped to legitimize the idea of an officially recognized dental student organization, and gave the ADA cover to respond in-kind. In addition, SADA lobbying efforts were making progress in generating interest with the American Dental Trade Association (ADTA).

The ADA was obviously aware that students had created their own independent organization, and decided that it might be prudent to engage with the fledgling organization in some manner. Shortly after their February organizational meeting, SADA national officers met with ADA staff in Chicago to discuss the potential for financial support and possible summer internship opportunities at the ADA headquarters. The ADA offered SADA a total of just $1,000 to help defray their travel expenses, but no other substantive progress was made. The ADA Executive Director, C. Gordon Watson, made it very clear that he was not convinced that a formal student section was worthy of further discussion. Although somewhat discouraged, SADA officers got wind that the ADA Council on Dental Education was very supportive and had urged the ADA to cooperate with SADA. There was hope. However, during the ensuing months, SADA leaders became increasingly concerned that their notion of a completely independent student organization would not be able to survive without increased financial support from other sources. SADA wanted to maintain its functional independence from the ADA just as medical and pharmacy students had done vis-à-vis their parent organizations, but efforts to secure enough funding to support its planned national convention had fallen short. The American Dental Trade Association (ADTA) had considered giving SADA a $10,000 grant, but the funds never came through. SADA leaders had reason to believe that ADA pressure was blocking this source of support. Money from SAMA, two San Francisco Bay-area foundation grants, and the meager ADA travel subsidy was insufficient to sustain SADA’s organizational plans. The goal for a House of Delegates Meeting had to be put on hold.

Faced with pressure from the ADTA and the real possibility that SADA might succeed in securing independent sources of funding, the ADA began developing its own plans for an office of student affairs (OSA). OSA was approved by the ADA House of Delegates in Oct. 1970 and was charged with organizing a dental student national convention to be held in Chicago on Feb. 8–9, 1971. The purpose of the convention was to bring student leaders together from all over the country, and to formalize the structure and the necessary support for student input into the American Dental Association. Dental school deans were asked to hold campus-wide elections for delegates. The ADA paid for the travel and lodging expenses for all the delegates. A significant number of the attendees were participants from the SADA convention the previous year, including all of SADA’s core group: Spain from UCSF, Martin from Marquette, Tenenbaum from Pitt, Smith from Illinois, and Loman as the delegate from Iowa. Their presence insured that there would be some continuity, at least in spirit, between SADA and this new iteration sponsored by the ADA. In addition to touring ADA facilities and electing officers, the delegates were divided into three working groups to address various fundamental structural issues and to create a template for moving forward. The culmination of the conference was the official formation of the American Student Dental Association (ASDA). Martin was elected as its 1st President; Guy Bates from the Univ. of Mo. in KC as VP; Lou Proffitt from Penn as Treasurer (who went on to become the 1ST President of the SNDA in 1972); Richard Featherstone from UCSF as Secretary; Smith was appointed as Editor of the ASDA Newsletter and given a ‘non-elected seat’ on the Board of Directors, and Nash was appointed as the Chairman of Dental Licensure Reform. Nine Regional Directors were chosen and given seats on the Board. Although this new student group had obtained the ADA’s approval and nominal support, there was much work to be done to secure the viability and credibility of the organization. Given these circumstances, it was obvious to Spain and the other original officers, that there was no longer a need for SADA to continue. Although it was in existence for just one year, the founders of the organization considered it to be a success. They had fulfilled their obligation to their medical and pharmacy school colleagues by helping them to secure their grant and by participating in an important public service effort in Appalachia. Perhaps of greater import, they had created an opportunity for friendship and open communication, and the sharing of information and grievances between student leaders from all over the country. They fully realized that without significant financial resources, their national organization could not survive. However, it was a consensus belief that without the existence of SADA, the ADA would not have agreed, at that time, to form a bona fide, representative student section. They had succeeded in accelerating the timetable to create a legitimate organization with meaningful student input into organized dentistry and dental education, regardless of what it was called. As President, Martin orchestrated several fundamental accomplishments over the ensuing months: he secured ADA financial and staff support, and permanent office space in the ADA building; finalized the Constitution and By Laws working side-by-side with Dr. John Gilman, ADA Asst. Executive Director, who proved to be an invaluable asset and ardent inside-supporter of the student group; and he hired Torre Sansone as ASDA’s first full-time Executive Director. Although sufficient financial support was a continuing challenge, creative thinking resulted in some tangible progress. Through the efforts of John Dann III, the delegate from Harvard and Member of the Board, ASDA was able to offer its student members an ADA-sponsored $25,000 term life insurance policy for just $25; and Martin got the National Board of Dental Examiners to agree that ASDA could sell old board exams at a minimal cost to all dues-paying members in good standing. ASDA also produced a catchy decal which said: “Teeth. Love ‘em or Lose ‘em” (as a parody of the right-wing, “hard-hat” slogan – “America, Love it or Leave it”), and sold them in bulk to dental schools and dentists at a moderate price tag. Through these initiatives, and supplemented by the membership dues from the approximately 16,000 ASDA student members (only $1/student), finally there was a positive cash flow, (although barely sufficient), and at last there was breathing room to begin to address the myriad of substantive challenges that lay ahead – and that is a whole other story. ===== • Note of citation: Most of the historical detail within this document was derived from the contributions of several of the initial officers of SADA and ASDA. However, an article that appeared on the Boston University School of Dental Medicine website in 2011 (author unknown), although containing some rather dubious historical ‘facts’, it provided a useful chronological structure and some helpful information. https://www.bu.edu/dental/students/organizations/asda/history

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Eventually many dental schools in the United States would automatically enroll their dental students in the association, resulting in a high proportion of dental students being members of the association.