At 9:15am on 3/22/11 associate vice president for community outreach, Bob Miller welcomed the press and then Western Michigan University President John Dunn to the WMU College of Health and Human Services. It was here where the announcement for “Operation Historic Moment” took place. WMU President John Dunn stated, “I’m enormously pleased to be able to make an announcement, the likes of which has been made by very few colleges or universities in this nation. Many universities identified in National rankings as the very “best of the best”… Harvard, Yale, Princeton have never been able to share news of this magnitude with their constituents” (Mlive.com). He continued, “A $100 cash gift, the largest ever made to a Michigan college or university, has been made to establish the Western Michigan University School of Medicine.” This $100 donation was given by “unidentified benefactors” (wilx.xom) and is among the 10 largest cash gifts ever made to an American public university. WMU President Dunn exclaimed that it is the “fifteenth largest cash gift ever made in the history of American higher education” (Mlive.com). After this announcement was released there was some obvious skepticism from students that I encountered; from “How is this going to benefit me”, to “Why can’t they revitalize East campus”, and, “Why couldn’t they put this money towards making our campus more ‘green’?” I found that not only is this “Historic Moment” beneficial to everyone connected to Western Michigan, especially the community of Kalamazoo, but this incredible donation will make a positive impact on the nation as a whole.
WMU’s new medical school, which is, “expected to open in the fall of 2013 or 2014” (wilx.com) is collaborating with the two major hospitals in Kalamazoo, Bronson Health Care, and Borgess Health. The community of Kalamazoo will benefit greatly from this future private medical school by combining “education, public/private partnerships, and donor commitment [which will work] in Kalamazoo in a way that makes this community an economic development model not just for Michigan, but for the entire nation” (Mlive.com webcast). President Dunn was personally excited about this announcement as he had proposed the idea in 2007 when he first talked about the feasibility of the medical school. As a nation, “we’ve seen [a] shortage for the past 30 years [of physicians]” and, “at a time when the United States is suffering from a shortage of primary care doctors” (money.cnn.com), this medical school couldn’t come at a more appropriate time. With the benefits reaching more than just the Western Michigan University Campus, this “Operation: Historic Moment” is definitely the beginning of new and wonderful things for Kalamazoo, Western Michigan, Michigan itself, and the nation, but just how does WMU plan to kick the plans into motion for this medical school?
Such a large cash donation to Western Michigan University, “will serve as the foundation funding for an innovative school of medicine” (Mlive.com). Estimates say that in order to start the school, WMU needs about another $175 to $300. Committees have been established in order to work out all of the logistics of the medical school. In terms of where the school will be located, there have been locations assessed, but nothing has been determined yet (Mlive.com). Personally I wonder how feasible it would be to revive parts of WMU’s historic East campus as part of the new medical school. It would sure make that “foundation funding” stretch further.
For me, I was rather indifferent to the original announcement on Tuesday morning, but after reading more about it and watching the announcement vie recorded web-stream on the Kalamazoo Gazette’s website, Mlive.com, my opinion leaned more in support. Paul Spaude, the CEO of Borgess said, “It is so exciting to have another opportunity for advancement in student education because at the end of the day it is all about the students and creating just wonderful learning experiences and we can take what’s been developed for well over 100 years in this community and launch it forward for another 100 years.” I have come to be quite excited and happy about this future medical school, as I hope you have as well. It will benefit the country by making available more opportunities to potential medical students. It will be a great benefit to the community of Kalamazoo and its hospitals. Western Michigan University will obviously benefit and hopefully because of the improvement to the facilities and education that WMU will have to offer it will help make my future WMU degree a little more prestigious.
Sources
http://www.wilx.com/news/headlines/100_Million_Donation_to_WMU_118440189.html
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/03/wmu_receives_100_million_anony.html
http://www.freep.com/article/20110322/NEWS06/110322028/WMU-lands-100-million-anonymous-donation-medical-school
http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/23/news/economy/more_medical_students_pick_family_medicine/