After the unanimous MSU Board of Trustees decision on May 7 to transfer the majority of the College of Human Medicine to Grand Rapids, details continue to be worked out.
This week MSU President M. Peter McPherson will select members for a committee to oversee the process.
Sherry Tompkins, spokeswoman for the College of Human Medicine, said the colleges of Natural Science, Osteopathic Medicine and Human Medicine already have submitted names of representatives for the committee.
"The oversight group is there to be a guardian of the process, to make sure that plans make sense, the monies are available," Tompkins said, adding she feels the moving process has slowed down since the board's vote.
The committee will interact with the board to make sure the move goes smoothly.
"I think it's going to be very helpful and I expect to have that committee be a hardworking committee," McPherson said. "We want to move right along here if we can."
But Tompkins said the move will take time. She pointed to the accreditation process and the movement of students through semesters as potential slowdowns.
Timelines are premature to discuss since the college hasn't officially been moved to Grand Rapids, Spectrum Health spokesman Bruce Rossman said. MSU officials are hoping to benefit from a connection with the Grand Rapids' health provider.
"Now it's time to sit down with MSU and go over concerns - primarily financial and operational," he said. "Neither organization has a final decision yet, if we're going to do this."
Rossman wouldn't comment as to if McPherson's upcoming departure from MSU would speed up any decisions.
Nothing in the last couple of months has changed Spectrum Health's goal to resolve the issue by the end of the year, he said.
One option McPherson ruled out, however, was backward movement.
State Sen. Virg Bernero, D-Lansing, said the board should revote after McPherson announced his plans to leave the university.
"To plow ahead with a major transition like this in the middle of a presidential search would be foolhardy," Bernero said in a press release.
McPherson said another vote won't happen.
"We want to move right along here if we can," he said.
Students find both advantages and disadvantages with the move.
Third year medical student Chad Bouterse said there are a lot of positive effects that can come from a larger medical school, especially from more exposure to patients and doctors' specialties.
"There's a higher patient volume," he said. "You see a lot of diagnoses and pathologies"
However, Bouterse said it's dangerous to take first- and second-year medical students off MSU's campus.
"You definitely don't feel unified with the campus," he said, adding a campus gives medical students more opportunities than just studying.
"I'm proud to say I graduated from Michigan State," he said. "I went to all the basketball games (and) I was involved with tutoring undergraduates.
"You have a lot of opportunities to give back."
