The MSU Board of Trustees endorsed on Friday an expansion of the College of Osteopathic Medicine satellite school into not one, but two, sites.
The Detroit Medical Center's old Hutzel Hospital and Macomb Community College's University Center in Clinton Township will be the new homes of the satellite schools.
MSU officials originally planned to choose one site from a pool of about 16, admitting 50 more students a year. Their decision to pick two sites will allow them to increase incoming class size by 100 students - 50 per site. The topic was debated for about 17 months.
By 2020, Congress predicted the United States would short 250,000 physicians. By the same year, it is expected that Michigan will be short about 4,900-5,000 physicians.
College of Osteopathic Medicine Dean William Strampel said admitting twice as many students could help solve the looming physician shortage.
"If we have a 4,900 physician shortage in the state of Michigan and I train, let's say, between now and the year 2020, another 1,000 physicians, it may make a dent," he said at the meeting Friday. "I don't think it will solve the entire problem."
The sites should be up and running for the 2008 incoming class, MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said.
The debate of the issue provided the necessary time to review and discuss the sites, but Provost Kim Wilcox said it also provided the opportunity for three main misunderstandings that have occurred: MSU would be splitting its investments in the southeast Michigan region, the decision was a political discussion and MSU would be elbowing out Wayne State University students.
"That is simply not the case," Wilcox said.
Wayne State University students sent a petition to the MSU Board of Trustees last week, asking them to reconsider locating the satellite school at DMC. The students were concerned in the quality of education decreasing as the number of students increased, especially during the hands-on clinical rotations.
DMC President and CEO Michael Duggan said MSU should be warmly welcomed.
"Michigan State students aren't going to have any problem at all," he said.
Wayne State University students had a misconception of MSU's expansion, Trustee Melanie Foster said.
"It's unfortunate that they are very fearful of this because we have no intention of diminishing their clinical experiences or displacing them," she said. "And we certainly are going to respect their students' experiences as we expand ours."
However, Wayne State University's 2009 class president Ryan Kell said bringing more students to the DMC area might backfire.
"I was disappointed to hear the result," he said. "I had really hoped that the board would decide to postpone their decision until they were able to hear what outside sources, such as the Schwarz panel, had to say on the issue."
But Simon said accepting both proposals had advantages - such as making more money.
The initial start-up cost of $2-4 million was worked out to break even within three years, she said.
The location a student is at will not affect the teaching, Strampel said.
"This is about the same type of medical education in three different locations," he said.
Osteopathic students will spend their first and second years taking classes at either one of the two sites, or in East Lansing. They then complete their education with two years of clinical rotations at one of MSUCOM's 19 community-based hospitals.
No hospital will be overwhelmed, even with the 50 extra students, Strampel said.
"If I had 50 extra students suddenly fall out of the sky on me, I'm not going to go to some hospital and say 'You need to take 50 extra students,'" he said.
"It's a partnership where we say, 'Do you have enough clinical rotations and enough clinical faculty where you could add four or five students?'"
While Kelly's concerns aren't eased, he said there shouldn't be animosity between WSU and MSU students.
"I don't think a single Wayne State student holds anything against Michigan State students," he said. "We are all in this together."
Colleen Maxwell can be reached at maxwel79@msu.edu.
