Follow Up on Medical School

[FIUFanatic]

More articles appearing, particularly in the Orlando Sentinel about new donations flowing to UCF for its Med School proposal. A lot of "noise" has been coming from Orlando in terms of new and increased donations towards its proposed Med School. Apparently, they have over $22.5 million which sets up to $45 million after matching funds....According to their stories FIU "announced" (I missed that) they have a "$30 million package" by early October. It's not clear if that "package" was before or after matching funds.

What I do find really interesting is that some people in Orlando are feeling a bit uneasy with the fact that "former" FIU Provost, Mark Rosenberg was just announced as the State's new Chancellor.....Rosenberg is not viewed by some as objective if having to choose between UCF and FIU....I think we have a bit of a better chance now, really. Also, the legislative power in the state is shifting to the South as some Miami Senators and Representatives are about to lead each Chamber real soon...

Here's the story in today's Sun Sentinel:

UCF medical school gets cash infusion


The proposal attracts an additional $7 million but needs state approval.

Tania Deluzuriaga
Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted October 27 2005


The University of Central Florida announced $7 million in new donations to its proposed medical school Wednesday, even as chances for a decision this year on whether UCF can proceed were slipping away.

The east Orange County university said it has $22.5 million pledged toward the new college it hopes to start building in southeast Orlando by next year.

"We're in the homestretch," UCF Provost Terry Hickey said of the fundraising effort to build Florida's sixth state-supported medical school.

However, the state university system's board of governors, which must approve any new school, may postpone a decision on the UCF proposal. Chairwoman Carolyn Roberts said Wednesday that three board members have asked for additional time to consider the matter.

"They have asked very respectfully to allow them more time to do more personal research," Roberts said.

If the board doesn't vote at its November meeting, the decision could likely be postponed until January or later.

Complicating the situation further -- at least in appearance -- was the board's selection Wednesday of Mark B. Rosenberg, provost of Florida International University, as the new chancellor of the 11 state universities.

Florida International has a competing proposal to build its own medical school in Miami. Both schools will present their respective med-school proposals to the board of governors Nov. 17.

UCF officials dismissed the idea that FIU might have an advantage, striking an optimistic tone as they unveiled new gifts for the medical center planned for the Lake Nona development east of Orlando International Airport.

The medical-school library will be named after the Alan and Harriet Ginsburg Family Foundation, thanks to a $4 million gift from the Maitland-based developer announced Wednesday.

Orlando Regional Healthcare, Florida Hospital and UCF board of trustees Chairman thingy Nunis also have pledged $1 million each.

"We view this not so much a gift as an investment," Florida Hospital President Don Jernigan told members of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce before Wednesday's announcement.

Earlier this month, UCF announced that Tavistock Group, developer of Lake Nona, had pledged $12.5 million in cash and $8 million worth of land. UCF also has a $10 million gift from car dealer Al Burnett and his wife, Nancy, to help build a biomedical-sciences building within the medical complex. That building will be built whether or not the medical school is approved.

All of the money donated for the medical school is eligible for a state match, bringing the total amount available for the project so far to $45 million.

"When this medical school becomes a reality, it's going to be due in very large part to the support we've received from the community," Hickey said.

Ginsburg, president and founder of CED Construction, did not attend the news conference. His company is one of the largest developers of apartments using tax credits and tax-exempt bonds.

He is a longtime patron of the arts, serving on the board of the Orlando Museum of Art and Hamilton Holt School at Rollins College in Winter Park. Nunis, former chairman of Walt Disney Attractions, worked with Ginsburg in the 1990s when Disney hired the developer to build two apartment complexes.

FIU said earlier this month that it had a $30 million package assembled in support of its medical-school plans. Its proposal includes partnerships with Mount Sinai Medical Center and Miami Children's Hospital.

Officials there could not be reached Wednesday for an update because power outages and damage from Hurricane Wilma have shut down the university.

Although Florida is the fourth-most-populous state in the nation, it ranks 41st in producing medical-school graduates and 26th in physicians per 100,000 people.

While the statewide shortage of doctors is well-documented, the board of governors must decide whether a new medical school is the way to solve the problem.

"There are some on the board of governors who don't think there's a physician shortage," Hickey told the chamber. "There are some who think there are other ways to produce the physicians needed."

UCF would like to begin construction next year. If so, classes could begin as early as 2008, university officials say. The new school could turn out as many as 120 doctors a year in a state that now imports many doctors from other states and nations.

Orlando is the largest U.S. metropolitan area without a medical school. Miami already has a state-subsidized school at the private University of Miami. Florida's other medical schools are in Tampa, Gainesville, Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. "If I were to pick a No. 1 Achilles' heel to doing what we want to do, it would be finding enough qualified physicians," Jernigan told the chamber. "I don't want to see this Achilles' heel become a bigger problem."

Because a new medical school will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, some board members contend they cannot make a well-informed, careful decision by the board's November meeting.

"No member of the board, I believe, could claim to have been adequately informed about medical education in Florida and could not, therefore, vote intelligently on whether we should have two new medical schools, or one, or none," board member J. Stanley Marshall wrote to Roberts in seeking a delay.

Board members Peter Rummell and Sheila McDevitt have made similar requests.

Although UCF and FIU intend to raise the bulk of their construction dollars from private sources, they will both need close to $100 million from the state over 10 years to get their schools up and running.

"You may take on the capital costs initially, but once those buildings are complete there continue to be capital costs," Roberts said. "A medical school is always expanding. And once the buildings are complete, the state has a requirement to support those buildings for many, many years."

Like UCF officials, she said the choice of FIU's Roberts to oversee the state universities should not give the Miami school any lead in the medical-school campaign.

"The fact that he comes from FIU will not have any influence in any way," Roberts said. "He's not representing one university now. He's the chancellor of the entire university system, and that includes UCF."

Tania deLuzuriaga can be reached at [e-mail] or 407-420-5718.

[FIUFan]

All those issues you mention (Rosenberg, demographic make-up of the Legislature, etc.) are going to make the Central Florida contingent work that much harder to overcome those issues.

What I find interesting now is that they are hanging their hat on the fact that they are the 'largest metro area in the country w/o a medical school' and that we (S. Fla) already have one in the UM. However, I think we all know that UM is not the face of S. Fla, it is, for the most part, an elitist group made up of primarily Northeasterners and a small minority of S. Floridians who happen to have the 'where-with-all' to get into their professional schools.

The S. Fla area (some six million people) is the largest Region of the country w/o a Public Medical School. Orlando has within what, 150 miles, two Public Medical Schools at UF and USF. To say that their community does not have access to Medical schools is disingenuous at best.

And by the way, which underserved demographic lives in the Orlando area?

[FIUFanatic]

Good analysis about Public Medical Schools, etc. I agree our leadership shouldn't rely on issues that seem to be turning the waves in our benefit, but these "outside forces" are or seem to be as well "aligned" towards FIU as they have ever been....Our leaders should seize the moment and "use" all our cards; by working hard inside, fund raising, a great "business plan", and by using all political contacts we can to succeed in this very important endeavor....

Go FIU!!!!!

[FIUFan]

Just looked it up. Orlando to Gainesville is 98 miles, Orlando to Tampa is 82 miles. Meanwhile, Miami is some 340 miles from Gainesville and 280 miles to Tampa.

So you 'could' have 3 medical schools all within 100 miles of each other and none in the entire southern half of the state. Seems pretty unreasonable to me, but politicians have been known to do stranger things.

[Xpedition]

yeah, like hand a med school to FSU.

[FIUFanatic]

Talking about FSU and Tallahassee, here's an editorial on todays Tallahassee Democrat paper which is not too complimentary:


www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/opinion/13045635.htm

Do we need more?

Med schools are on the move


Last week the University of Central Florida scored $7 million in new donations to build a proposed medical school in east Orange County. It's now got $22.5 million pledged toward building it.

Clearly the Orlando business and medical communities and UCF are enthusiastic about creating a medical school, just as Tallahassee and Florida State University were in the late 1990s when the Legislature was persuaded to begin state funding of an unusual medical education program emphasizing underserved areas and primary care.

Now in its fifth year, the FSU College of Medicine was the country's first new medical school at a public university in 20 years. Medical education and related programs are the most expensive on any college campus and often drain resources from many other university programs, so establishing a new one is no minor decision for a state.

FSU's med school is a prestigious addition to the university and adds tremendous synergy and impetus to our town-gown community as a growing regional medical care and research center.

We're awfully glad to have it here, even though it was never endorsed by the old Board of Regents, which thought it had authority to weigh the merit of such things with regard to the entire state university system. When it rejected it, in short order the BOR was abolished by lawmakers who didn't like its two-cents' worth.

This year, however, two more med schools are en route to the Legislature. The Board of Governors is now set to review the UCF proposal and another from Florida International University in Miami, where the BOG's new chancellor, Mark Rosenberg, has been serving as provost. That Miami Rep. Marco Rubio is incoming House speaker won't hurt FIU's case either.

For the BOG to be ready, as it appears to be, to voice its official position on the med schools this month seems a little bit hasty and probably irrelevant when it comes to what the Legislature will do. It sure won't turn over university funding decisions to the BOG, whose power and authority is still being worked out in court-ordered mediation.

Though both UCF and FIU say they intend to raise the majority of their money for construction from private donations, both will nevertheless need close to $100 million from the taxpayers over the next 10 years to keep the facilities running.

To have any hope of being an influential voice in these hotly political proposals, the BOG owes to its members and the taxpayers a firm commitment to take the needed time and preparation to make wise, informed recommendations on these vastly expensive and possibly redundant public projects.

4E/Tuesday, November 1, 2005 www.TALLAHASSEE.com

[FIUFan]

Right, it sounds like they (the Tallahassee ) are saying "we've got ours, now screw you". Why doesn't that surprise anyone.