Elizabeth Piet The State News Surrounded by intense public outcry, the MSU Board of Trustees unanimously approved moving the College of Human Medicine from East Lansing to Grand Rapids at a meeting Friday morning.
Details of the move will continue to be discussed, but a report released in April said the College of Human Medicine would move all but about 25 first- and second-year students to Grand Rapids. The College of Osteopathic Medicine would, however, increase its yearly class size by about 80 students and remain in East Lansing.
Trustee Randall Pittman said the medical school needs improvement in terms of research and national ranking.
"We need to have the med school be a leader in terms of medical change," he said. "The med school affects the whole state, not just Lansing."
Pittman said the resolution looks at the long-term position of the school and health care in Michigan.
"I believe this project doesn't abandon Lansing, it helps Lansing," said Pittman, adding that he thinks the move will lower health care costs by expanding medical technology in the state.
"The devil is in the details," he said. "Let's look at the details."
During the meeting, several people from campus and the surrounding community gave their opinions about the resolution. East Lansing resident Sandra Hiatt said she realized that the medical school needs to expand.
"If the focus is to change, why can't it change here locally?" she said, adding that a move would make medical care more difficult for the people with little or no health care.
"Is Michigan State an island unto itself or is it a part of the community in which it resides?"
Jane Turner, associate dean of the College of Human Medicine, said she's neutral on the issue but was concerned about the preclinical curriculum and if enough faculty would be available in Grand Rapids. The College of Human Medicine and the Faculty Senate endorsed the relocation in April.
"Who is going to teach our first- and second-year medical students?" she said. "Teaching skills take years to build."
Turner said she also was worried about recruiting students and faculty to move to Grand Rapids if there was a preceived lower standard at the separate campus.
"It would be a challenge," she said.
East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows asked the board to delay its decision and look more closely at the monetary impact of the move.
After the meeting, Meadows said the residents of East Lansing deserve to be concerned about the medical school move and its effects on health care in the area.
"It's not just the elderly," he said, adding that the current medical school has a family practice focus and serves "primarily the underinsured and uninsured."
"You're talking about eliminating health care for a lot of residents," he said.
After the public section of the meeting ended, MSU President M. Peter McPherson and the trustees individually spoke about why each was in favor of the expansion into Grand Rapids.
"We have a good medical school," McPherson said. "The question is, can we have a great medical school?"
McPherson said the university will remain very committed to the Lansing area.
"This has been the hardest issue in this community since I've been here," McPherson said. "There's going to have to be major changes to what we do in Lansing."
Trustee Dorothy Gonzales said partnerships are needed within a medical school.
"A stand-alone effort isn't going to fly," she said. "It has to be a regional approach." After the meeting, Gonzales said cooperation will allow many organizations to share the cost of the medical school and health care.
"Health care is becoming so unattainable to people," she said, calling the medical school move a "prevention effort."
