Currently we were in a partnership with University of Miami, but it appears we are going forward with our own now!

We need approval from the Board of Governers to go thru, but since Frank Brogan is the head of that (and former FAU president) I think it will get the nod.

Good news for the Belts academic standing.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/educati...8545.story

Florida Atlantic University plans to stop offering University of Miami medical degrees on its Boca Raton campus and instead start its own program with the help of The Scripps Research Institute.

Students in FAU's new four-year medical program could also apply to get a Ph.D. from Scripps' Kellogg School of Science and work on them jointly. Scripps' Florida site is on FAU's Jupiter campus.

"With Scripps' name, and the number of students that are applying for the Scripps Ph.D., having the medical option along with that makes the program an almost instant success," said John Pritchett, interim president of FAU.

U.S. News & World Report ranks Scripps as the country's seventh-best graduate school for science.

Students may find the cost appealing as well. Tuition would be $21,752 a year plus fees, down from the $30,000 a year plus fees that UM, a private college, charged students on the FAU campus.

FAU says it can offer this program with no new money from the state, using tuition and $12 million in state funding it already receives for its UM partnership.

FAU's board of trustees is expected to approve the proposal Wednesday. The university would need to get approval from the Board of Governors, which runs the State University System. The first students would start in fall 2011.

"It will be very important for the university to be able to show the Board of Governors that there won't be any additional state funding needed to change the way they operate, especially given the tough economic times," said Norman Tripp of Fort Lauderdale, a member of the state board.

FAU's affiliation with UM's Miller School of Medicine started in 2004. Initially, UM students could take two years of classes on the FAU campus and their final two in Miami. That eventually changed to allow UM students to stay at FAU all four years. The agreement expires this year, so FAU had to decide whether to renew, work with another university or go off on its own, Pritchett said.

Boca Raton Community Hospital joined the partnership in 2006, when it announced plans to build a $650 million teaching hospital, where medical students could do their residency work. But those plans folded when the hospital ran out of money and ended its plans to relocate.

No one from UM was available to comment Tuesday, a spokeswoman said. President Donna Shalala issued a joint statement with Pritchett indicating the separation is amicable. The statement said the joint partnership "has worked well for FAU and could become a national standard."

The UM and FAU program now serves 127 students and had planned to grow to 256. The FAU program would serve 246 students by 2014, according to the proposal. Students currently enrolled in the UM program will be able to continue and graduate with a UM degree. Pritchett expects the final class of UM students to enroll at FAU this fall.

(01-20-2010 12:59 PM)OwlFamily Wrote:  Currently we were in a partnership with University of Miami, but it appears we are going forward with our own now!

We need approval from the Board of Governers to go thru, but since Frank Brogan is the head of that (and former FAU president) I think it will get the nod.

Good news for the Belts academic standing.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/educati...8545.story

Florida Atlantic University plans to stop offering University of Miami medical degrees on its Boca Raton campus and instead start its own program with the help of The Scripps Research Institute.

Students in FAU's new four-year medical program could also apply to get a Ph.D. from Scripps' Kellogg School of Science and work on them jointly. Scripps' Florida site is on FAU's Jupiter campus.

"With Scripps' name, and the number of students that are applying for the Scripps Ph.D., having the medical option along with that makes the program an almost instant success," said John Pritchett, interim president of FAU.

U.S. News & World Report ranks Scripps as the country's seventh-best graduate school for science.

Students may find the cost appealing as well. Tuition would be $21,752 a year plus fees, down from the $30,000 a year plus fees that UM, a private college, charged students on the FAU campus.

FAU says it can offer this program with no new money from the state, using tuition and $12 million in state funding it already receives for its UM partnership.

FAU's board of trustees is expected to approve the proposal Wednesday. The university would need to get approval from the Board of Governors, which runs the State University System. The first students would start in fall 2011.

"It will be very important for the university to be able to show the Board of Governors that there won't be any additional state funding needed to change the way they operate, especially given the tough economic times," said Norman Tripp of Fort Lauderdale, a member of the state board.

FAU's affiliation with UM's Miller School of Medicine started in 2004. Initially, UM students could take two years of classes on the FAU campus and their final two in Miami. That eventually changed to allow UM students to stay at FAU all four years. The agreement expires this year, so FAU had to decide whether to renew, work with another university or go off on its own, Pritchett said.

Boca Raton Community Hospital joined the partnership in 2006, when it announced plans to build a $650 million teaching hospital, where medical students could do their residency work. But those plans folded when the hospital ran out of money and ended its plans to relocate.

No one from UM was available to comment Tuesday, a spokeswoman said. President Donna Shalala issued a joint statement with Pritchett indicating the separation is amicable. The statement said the joint partnership "has worked well for FAU and could become a national standard."

The UM and FAU program now serves 127 students and had planned to grow to 256. The FAU program would serve 246 students by 2014, according to the proposal. Students currently enrolled in the UM program will be able to continue and graduate with a UM degree. Pritchett expects the final class of UM students to enroll at FAU this fall.

That is great for you guys! Good job!

We had the private money to purchase a law school and the state of TN (i.e. big arnge nation) wouldn't let us do it. Instead they gave state tax dollars to Tennessee State, and then the law school balked. Now, neither of the universities have a law school.

Good to see that Florida and FSU are not fighting this.

CONGRATS to FAU; soon both of the Florida schools will have a College of Medicine.

Go SBC !!!

(01-20-2010 02:23 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  We had the private money to purchase a law school and the state of TN (i.e. big arnge nation) wouldn't let us do it. Instead they gave state tax dollars to Tennessee State, and then the law school balked. Now, neither of the universities have a law school.

Good to see that Florida and FSU are not fighting this.

What law school was that?

I really love this idea from FAU btw, but without looking at the statute, I think this will need legislative approval as well as BoG approval.

It would need both as UCF and FIU know about it already having gone through the process of getting a medical school. FIU's school opened its doors this year to it's first class of 43 students.

IM wondering if they can skip the legeslative part since the funds are already allocated from the state. FAU is not requesting any "new" money for the school. They simply want to take what they have already been allocated from the state and apply it solely to themselves instead of both FAU and UM.

No expert here, but that may be why the legislature wouldnt be involved.

Sounds to me like FAU used UM to circumnavigate the entire medical school approval process which took FIU 10 long, hard years to accomplish. FIU not only had to get Board of Govenor approval but also needed State Legislature approval.

I really don't think that FIU and UCF are going to be to happy with FAU trying to skate in the backdoor.

It's obvious they used the "backdoor" approach, and that was very shrewd on their part, as I wouldn't doubt that was maybe a plan they had all along, that perhaps became more urgent due to UCF and FIU getting theirs, leaving FAU behind.

In any event, that could end up being a brilliant move for them! As for the legislature, one question might be if those funds were committed for a specific period of time or specific entity/plan or not.

It would truly be amazing if the state of Florida would "open" (would this be an opening") 3 new Medical Colleges in a matter of 2 years!

Maybe they should just split the $12M/year between the two new legitimate medical schools, FIU & UCF.

p.s. Scripps doesn't even have a Medical School and they are based in California. Do you think that state taxpayers are going to look kindly on sending state tax dollars to a California based institution. This doesn't look very well thought out if you ask me.

(01-21-2010 11:08 AM)FIUFan Wrote:  Maybe they should just split the $12M/year between the two new legitimate medical schools, FIU & UCF.

p.s. Scripps doesn't even have a Medical School and they are based in California. Do you think that state taxpayers are going to look kindly on sending state tax dollars to a California based institution. This doesn't look very well thought out if you ask me.

Scripps moved to Jupiter.

They are heavily involved in the jupiter campus of FAU.

(01-21-2010 01:14 PM)OwlFamily Wrote:  

(01-21-2010 11:08 AM)FIUFan Wrote:  Maybe they should just split the $12M/year between the two new legitimate medical schools, FIU & UCF.

p.s. Scripps doesn't even have a Medical School and they are based in California. Do you think that state taxpayers are going to look kindly on sending state tax dollars to a California based institution. This doesn't look very well thought out if you ask me.

Scripps moved to Jupiter.

They are heavily involved in the jupiter campus of FAU.

Scripps did not 'move to Jupiter', they are a Southern California Research Institution:

[From the Scipps web-site]

In La Jolla, Scripps Research operates more than 1 million square feet of laboratory space. The campus spans approximately 35 acres of land of which 14.7 are owned by the institute. Located in close proximity to the University of California, San Diego, the campus is situated with easy access to San Diego's scientific community, which includes The Salk Institute and the Burnham Institute, as well as a concentration of some 300 biotechnology companies.

As far as Florida is concerned:

The start-up costs of Scripps Florida—a division of The Scripps Research Institute headquartered in La Jolla, California—were supported by a one-time $310 million appropriation of federal economic development funds by the Florida State Legislature.

So in other words we (the Florida taxpayer) gave a California based research institute $310M to bring some of their operations here.

This all this sounds a bit premature to me.

By the way, who decided not to renew the contract, FAU or UM? Probably UM, because if not, FAU is taking a huge risk non-renewing that contract.

(01-21-2010 02:20 PM)FIUFan Wrote:  

(01-21-2010 01:14 PM)OwlFamily Wrote:  

(01-21-2010 11:08 AM)FIUFan Wrote:  Maybe they should just split the $12M/year between the two new legitimate medical schools, FIU & UCF.

p.s. Scripps doesn't even have a Medical School and they are based in California. Do you think that state taxpayers are going to look kindly on sending state tax dollars to a California based institution. This doesn't look very well thought out if you ask me.

Scripps moved to Jupiter.

They are heavily involved in the jupiter campus of FAU.

Scripps did not 'move to Jupiter', they are a Southern California Research Institution:

[From the Scipps web-site]

In La Jolla, Scripps Research operates more than 1 million square feet of laboratory space. The campus spans approximately 35 acres of land of which 14.7 are owned by the institute. Located in close proximity to the University of California, San Diego, the campus is situated with easy access to San Diego's scientific community, which includes The Salk Institute and the Burnham Institute, as well as a concentration of some 300 biotechnology companies.

As far as Florida is concerned:

The start-up costs of Scripps Florida—a division of The Scripps Research Institute headquartered in La Jolla, California—were supported by a one-time $310 million appropriation of federal economic development funds by the Florida State Legislature.

So in other words we (the Florida taxpayer) gave a California based research institute $310M to bring some of their operations here.

This all this sounds a bit premature to me.

By the way, who decided not to renew the contract, FAU or UM? Probably UM, because if not, FAU is taking a huge risk non-renewing that contract.

Thanks for the link. I was unaware, I thought they had moved.:ncaabbs:

As to the renewal I think it was mutual from what I read in the article. It probably is a gamble but one that could pay off pretty well.

(01-21-2010 10:35 AM)OwlFamily Wrote:  IM wondering if they can skip the legeslative part since the funds are already allocated from the state. FAU is not requesting any "new" money for the school. They simply want to take what they have already been allocated from the state and apply it solely to themselves instead of both FAU and UM.

No expert here, but that may be why the legislature wouldnt be involved.

You can't just reappropriate money without authorizing legislation. Money is appropriated for a specific purpose and the legislature at the very least would have to reappropriate that money in the new budget. But this sort of thing is authorized by the legislature like the FIU & UCF Med Schools + the FIU/FAMU law schools.

Geez, sounds like some FIU jealousy here.

Scripps and the Max Planc Society are HUGE biotech players and both now already have or will have major presences in Palm Beach County. With Torrey Pines, another major biotech company, in close proximity (Port St. Lucie), these entities and FAU can become very solid partners in the Palm Beaches.

From what I read, FAU decided not continue the UM agreement. UM got all the benefits. FAU is already funding the program and needs little if anything from the state. This is a win-win for FAU and the 1.5-million population Palm Beach County area.

BTW, Scripps didn't just build a little satellite campus. It actually has one of the world's most advanced robots being used for quick testing of potential cancer cures and other work. A team of scientists from Israel are here to see it and potentially collaborate. They don't have one in their country.

Scripps and Max Planc have lured some of the top researchers and scientists around the world to the Palm Beaches to do great work here.

Research is one thing a Medical school is something else.

"Scripps and the Max Planc Society are HUGE biotech players and both now already have or will have major presences in Palm Beach County. With Torrey Pines, another major biotech company, in close proximity (Port St. Lucie), these entities and FAU can become very solid partners in the Palm Beaches."

Since 2003 the State of Florida, through Fed Funds and State matching dollars, has invested $1.5 billion; to date 1,100 jobs have been created. So though Scripps and Max' are huge players (somewhere else), the return on investment for the state has been miniscule.

Don't you think taxpayers deserve a better return on their investment?

(01-22-2010 11:21 AM)FIUFan Wrote:  Don't you think taxpayers deserve a better return on their investment?

Its sort of like going to a lower tier Bowl Game as an at large, it might not be monetarily advantageous, but the payoff in exposure is priceless.

Not that FIU would know anything about that.

(01-22-2010 11:37 AM)OwlFamily Wrote:  

(01-22-2010 11:21 AM)FIUFan Wrote:  Don't you think taxpayers deserve a better return on their investment?

Its sort of like going to a lower tier Bowl Game as an at large, it might not be monetarily advantageous, but the payoff in exposure is priceless.

Not that FIU would know anything about that.

Why doesn't FAU concentrate on the research which would be 'complimentary' to their Innovation Village. I mean, don't you think you're bitting off more than you can chew with a medical school and research institution? esp. in this economy.