Former Ambassdor Kenneth Yalowitz, director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, solicited student support Thursday night for the creation of a new global health minor and international studies certificate program. In the first lecture of an eight-week series on global health, titled More than Medicine, Yalowitz also announced a new global health course to be taught next year by biology professor Lee Witters.
Yalowitz told a crowd of approximately 40 students about his time as an ambassador to Georgia and Belarus during the fall of the Soviet Union -- an experience that he said developed his interest in global health.
"What we saw were recurrences of disease that we had not seen for 75 years," Yalowitz said. He also discussed how the average male life span has been decreasing dramatically in the area since the Soviet Union collapsed and remarked about what he said was a significant jump in suicide rates.
"People were dropping like flies," Yalowitz said of trends in the Soviet Union related to the AIDS epidemic, alcoholism and stomach diseases.
Yalowitz said he launched the cross-discipline program because he believes that global health is essentially a security issue.
"The problems that I saw in former Soviet Union ... these were much more widespread problems," Yalowitz said.
The lecture series, presented by the Dartmouth Coalition for Global Health, was part of the group's effort to interest students from all academic disciplines in international health issues.
"It's the idea that you don't need to be pre-med in order to get involved. It's about helping lives," said series coordinator Ben Schwartz '06.
In addition to a new course and a possible minor in the field, Yalowitz spoke about the development of a possible international studies certificate. The certificate program would include four internationally-focused courses, including a class on global health.
Yalowitz also encouraged students to pursue global health internship opportunities in Tanzania, where Dartmouth Medical School has already established several projects, including a pediatric AIDS clinic and vaccine testing projects.
"Health issues should be part of the curriculum," Yalowitz said.
Students at the Tuck School of Business are also involved in the global health scene, Yalowitz said, citing the work of second-year Tuck students who were sent to Tanzania to consult on a project to establish a pharmaceutical school there.
"The Global Health Initiative has really taken off. What we are doing is building on to take advantage of all that Dartmouth brings," Yalowitz said.
