ASCO Welcomes 22nd Member

KYCO-logo.sealASCO recently welcomed its newest member institution, the University of Pikeville Kentucky College of Optometry (KYCO).

KYCO is the 22nd member of ASCO and the first optometry school in Kentucky. The program’s Founding Dean is Dr. Andrew Buzzelli, and its inaugural class is currently being recruited for fall 2016. Sixty students will be admitted per class for a total of 240. With no other colleges of optometry in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina or Georgia, KYCO will be the most accessible college of optometry in the Southeastern portion of the country. The Accreditation Council on Optometric Education (ACOE) has granted KYCO the pre-accreditation classification of “Preliminary Approval.” As stated by ACOE Chairman Dr. J. Bart Campbell in a KYCO press release, “The classification of ‘Preliminary Approval’ is granted to a professional optometric degree program that has clearly demonstrated it is developing in accordance with council standards. The program has approval to begin student recruitment, selection and admissions and to begin offering the program.”

A continuation of the university’s strategic focus on health sciences, KYCO, the Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Elliott School of Nursing will serve as an integrated healthcare model for rural medicine.