The American Student Dental Association (ASDA) is a national student-run organization that is concerned with the rights, interests, and welfare of dental students. It has the aim of introducing students to lifelong involvement in organized dentistry and provides services, information, education, representation, and advocacy.
ASDA was established to connect, support and advance the needs of dental students. ASDA represents 92 percent of all students from 66 U.S. dental schools. In 2018, the association had over 24,000 members, including 22,000 dental students and almost 2,000 predental students. The association also has a membership category for international dental students.
History In February 1970, the Student American Dental Association (SADA) was formed.
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.
1969: Inception
Many of the teaching faculty and clinical instructors for dental schools 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.Scott, B. 1972, Is this the Future of Medical Care in America? Today’s Health p.39-40 Apr.’72
In 1969 the federal government, through the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), initiated a Manpower Development and Recruitment Project - a multi-disciplinary health care initiative. The ARC was established under the authority of The Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965, an Act of Congress administered by the Sec. of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965; Title 40 In 1969, the ARC was authorized to fund a rural health demonstration project in 29 counties in three states (under Section 202) for a select group of health profession students which required the inclusion of medicine, pharmacy, nursing, veterinary science, and dentistry.Appalachian Regional Commission. Annual Report 1969. Appalachian Regional Commission, Washington, D.C. 19 Dec ’69 88 This demonstration project was to be administered by the Student American Medical Association (SAMA). When organizers attempted to invite the dental student association, they found that no such group existed. At the time, Chuck Payton, the president of SAMA from the Medical School at the University of California at San Francisco, and Ray Sattler, 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.Scott, B. 1972, Is this the Future of Medical Care in America, Today's Health pp 39-40
Later that year, Spain, Payton, and Sattler attended a planning meeting sponsored by the ARC in Washington, D.C., in September where they met David Evaskus, a senior dental student from the University of Illinois. Evaskus agreed to help Spain to recruit dental students from around the country to attend a founding and organizational meeting for SADA. In the spirit of the Appalachia Project, they 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, and after many phone calls, they were successful in gaining cooperation from about half of the total dental schools in the country. It was decided that Chicago was the best, and most feasible location, and with the support of Dean Seymour Yale, Evaskus was able to secure the U. of I. Dental School for the weekend of Feb. 14-15, just prior to the Midwinter Meeting of the Chicago Dental Society.Evaskus, D. Oct. 1971 A Brief History of Organized Student Dentistry, Dental Student News pp.3,5
1970: Progress is Made
At the behest of his Dean, Evaskus recruited Warren Smith, a freshman dental student, to help with the housing and local transportation logistics. Students from approximately 30 dental schools participated in the meeting Student House to Convene in New York in October, ADA News. July 1970 supported by meager travel stipends from their individual schools. This was not a 5-star event. A bunch of students crashed on the floor of Evaskus’ small apartment and a bunch crashed at Smith’s parents’ house. However, these informal, crowded accommodations had one fortuitous and unanticipated 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. Undergraduate dental education in 1970 could be characterized as a clash of contrasts – with a traditional faculty and curriculum on the one hand, and an atypical, more enlightened, and sophisticated group of students on the other hand, who were not shy about challenging the status quo. Virtually every school was staffed with part-time instructors and retired dentists. Few, if any faculty members had any training in educational principles and modalities. Teaching methods had changed little from the 1950’s and yet the quality and diversity among students was dramatically different. Starting in the mid-60’s, dental schools had been admitting accomplished students, many with previous careers, who expected their dental school experiences to match the rigor and sophistication of their predental academics. Rote memorization, unsupported indoctrination and hazing, and poorly designed curricula were just not acceptable. What had begun as a recruitment program for an Appalachian summer project soon became an independent organized movement that would pose a meaningful challenge to the dental education establishment and the ADA.
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; to formulate broad policy positions; and to 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; Dennis Loman from Iowa as the Treasurer; and Michael Freid from Indiana as Secretary, (although shortly thereafter, Harry Martin from Marquette assumed the Secretary position). Although Evaskus (who was close to graduation and at the doorstep of his Oral Surgery Residency) chose to no longer be involved, there is no question that he, along with Smith and Spain must be recognized as the Co-Organizers of that first convention. 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 later that year in October to coincide with the annual meeting of the ADA in Las Vegas.
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 Appalachia Project. SADA also recruited Jonathan Nash, a junior dental student at NYU, as their Chairman of Dental Licensure Reform. Nash had formed a student-dentist alliance called the National Council for the Improvement of Dental Licensure 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.Student Works for Licensure Change, AADS Dental Student Views and Actions p.6 June 1971Nash, J. 1971, National Council for Improvement of Dental Licensure Seeks Support from Educators, Students, and Organized Dentistry, Dental Student News pp.1,3 Oct.1971 This liaison enabled SADA to promote a credible national advocacy platform right out of the gate; one which was already of direct concern to all dental students.
There were other first-year accomplishments that were not publicly known nor widely discussed outside the central core of student activists. Lobbying inside the ADA, the AADS, and the ADTA with minimal resources was time consuming and frustrating. The concept of dental students organizing beyond their individual campuses was an unexpected development which triggered organizational pushback. This required student leadership to implement creative strategies both within and without 211 E. Chicago Ave. For example, Smith established working relationships inside the AADS and the ADA, and was able to identify alliances and points of resistance; and Spain communicated with dental school Deans and local campus-based student organizations to maintain momentum for a national convention. 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 challenge that first year was to establish legitimacy and financial support. Although official recognition from the ADA was not as yet forthcoming, positive momentum was building in other circles.