History of the AOSA

In the late 19th century “optometry” was just a shop on the corner…eyes were checked for vision and glasses purchased. These shops were distinguished as “dispensing” and “refracting” opticians. By 1886 Edmund Landolt had coined the term Optometrist which was used for the early “refracting” opticians.

The first optometry schools were established in 1850-1900 in the USA and were run very much like trade schools. A high school education was not required for admission. The course lasted two years and included subjects such as physics, practical and theoretical optics and physiological optics. As early as 1898 these first optometrists realized the need to organize with a goal of setting professional standards, lobbying government, and providing research, education standards and leadership.

By 1910 the first university-affiliated optometry course was initiated at Columbia University and others followed. A conference was called to upgrade education and the Accreditation Council on Education (ACOE) was created. The schools that were in existence were rated - only sixteen met the requirements - others were eliminated.

How does an optometry school come to exist? Today schools must begin pre-accreditation classification of “Preliminary approval” by the ACOE and ACOE will review the preliminary approval classification annually during the first three academic years of the program. At the present time there are 22 schools and colleges of optometry (including 2 in Canada and 1 in Puerto Rico).

The early optometric education which began one hundred years ago has undergone a complete metamorphosis. Students of optometry today must be more knowledgeable in order to understand not only every aspect of science and technology pertaining to their profession but also new social and technical concepts and awareness of the laws that govern the profession.

During the 1930s many unnamed students worked toward a goal of one voice speaking for their particular four year period of study as they worked to enter the profession. Optometry students get engrossed with studies and it is easy to lose sight of the profession that once inspired them to begin and the larger issues that they will face after they have received their degree.

By 1942 a committee looked into the possibility of a student organization, but planning was interrupted by the on-set of World War II. There were several attempts again made in the early 1960s to establish communications among the schools and colleges of optometry, but it wasn’t until 1968 that the American Optometric Student Association (AOSA) actually was formed mainly due to the efforts of Raymond I. Myers, a student at the Indiana University School of Optometry. He then became the Association’s first President.

As early as 1969, the AOSA received national recognition when Bob Middleton, the association’s second president was called to testify before a Senate subcommittee as a representative of health professional students. In 1973 AOSA students were keeping an “Eye on Washington” when the association’s sixth President, Ron Ferucci represented student health associations as a spokesman before Congress. By 1980 an AOSA President posed these questions which are relevant and current with the work of the Association today:

Wouldn’t it be nice to see into the future? To know what fortunes lie ahead for our profession? What will be the economics, the politics, and the legislative triumphs and bitter defeats which will influence our doctor/patient relationships? How much control will each of us have over the way we practice optometry?…The AOSA is an organization that consists of you and your colleagues, the collective future of the profession…to get involved in student concerns, in other organizations and groups representing the entire health care sector.

 

Although in the beginning there were only three optometry school members, the AOA endorsed the organization immediately, and by the early 1970s the AOSA had expanded to seven chapters. At AOSA’s annual meetings - originally call “Congress”, the president presided over the Board of Trustees (which was then called The Student Advisory Committee). It was resolved at the first meeting in 1971 that the Board of Trustees would incorporate as a non-profit organization in the State of Missouri. Because of the plan to incorporate, certain aspects of the original Constitution needed to be changed: 1. Purpose, 2. Incorporation, 3. Executive Council/Administrative Body, 4. Board of Directors with a President presiding.

Major objectives of the AOSA were adopted at this meeting.

• Secure optometry’s role in comprehensive health care.
• Maintain and expand interprofessional and intraprofessional responsibilities and awareness.
• Meet vision care needs of all people through maximum utilization of current scientific, professional, and technological advances in vision care, including the use of paraoptometric personnel and extended optometric care.
• Increase public awareness of the needs for, the benefit from, and the full scope of optometric service and its specialties.
• Protect the public’s right to freedom of choice of practitioners licensed to provide vision care.
• Promote and support basic and applied research in the vision sciences.
• Strengthen and unite local optometric student societies.
• Provide significant services to optometric students which could not be provided by individual optometric student societies.
• Increase awareness of the need of urging changes to facilitate the above objectives.

The resolutions and Bylaws of the Association were approved at the 1972 AOSA Congress and the designation “Board of Directors” was changed to “Board of Trustees” with two representatives from each school or college of optometry (the current Trustee and the Trustee-Elect). This Board of Trustees would meet two times a year. The first meeting of the Board was at an AOSA (students only Congress/Conference) held in January of each year at the city location of one of the optometry schools of the Association. Students at the selected school helped with all aspects of this special Student Conference which was coordinated by the Executive Director and the Central office in St. Louis. The Mid-Year Meeting of this Board was held at the location/venue of the American Optometric Association Congressional Conference in June although the combined Conference would come many years later.

By 1984 all optometry schools in the US, 2 in Canada and one in Puerto Rico were members of AOSA. The problem of communication between all schools and the central office were solved by creating a newsletter originally called the Student Review and later changed to the current Foresight which is issued bi-annually. It contains articles from Trustees and/or Trustee-Elects at each school along with current information about many aspects of the optometric profession, such as government programs regarding the scope of practice and various loan options for students as they make their way through the four year graduate program to become an OD.

In 1988 the Board voted to seek affiliation with the AOA and in June of that year the AOSA affiliation was unanimously approved by the House of Delegates and full support of the AOA Board. This affiliation gave students a wider scope of information and communication as the AOSA membership became a joint membership with AOA throughout their 4 year graduate college years.

In the 1990s, the AOSA Boards began discussing the possibility of holding the January Student Conference in coordination with the larger American Optometric Association yearly conference held in June. Several Boards continued these discussions until the final decision was made in 2002 which lead to a Joint AOSA Conference with the AOA to be called the Optometry’s Meeting® in 2003 (see events).

 

Many optometry companies sponsored events at the early-student only conferences and continued loyally to support special student events at the Optometry’s Meeting®. Sponsors also support many other benefits and programs for the student members of AOSA (see benefits) as they realize that these are their future customers. These benefits along with the general information they have access to through AOSA membership complement the intense education they receive to become doctors of optometry. One very special benefit is an event sponsored by the Varilux Corporation began in 1991 as the Optometry Super Bowl [now called Optometry Student Bowl]. This continuing annual event presents students a venue in a jeopardy type setting to test their knowledge of optometry along with fun and prizes.

 

These sponsors also support student members to test their knowledge by writing essays or reports to gain Travel Grants which help them attend the current Optometry’s Meeting®. Sponsors also support special education classes with speakers on practice management and interactive venues so that students can begin the communication with the professional world of optometry before they have finished their 4 years of study.

Communication was enhanced when National Liaisons were approved for various allied optometric organizations such as the National Board of Examiners in Optometry (NBEO) which gives students continuing updated information about the tests they will take in their 3rd and 4th years. The AOSA would go on to establish liaison relationships with other allied organizations (see Allied list) of the industry such as the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO) and the Armed Forces Optometric Society (AFOS). One very important national liaison was with the American Optometric Association/Political Action Committee (AOA/PAC) which helps AOSA continue the “Eye on Washington” that students started early in the Association.

In 2007 sixty students from all optometry schools lobbied Capitol Hill alongside optometrists in support of “expanding student loan interest deductibility” and “expanding access to eye and vision care to the underserved, HR1884.” As recently as the summer of 2009 Congressional Advisory Conference, 123 students joined ODs to lobby Capitol Hill to support three bills which, if passed, will enhance many different facets of their optometric careers.

Along with involvement on the national political scene many students work with State Optometric Associations in support of drug laws which help broaden their scope of practice. In 2007 the students at NSU-OCO took pro-active steps by making a trip to Capitol Hill. They passed out flyers at legislator offices and made themselves available to answer questions. As one voice for the optometry of their state, they became more comfortable speaking and expressing opinions and the legislators became aware that optometry students (future voters) were watching.