The medical campus that recently opened in Athens should be mutually beneficial for Athens and Augusta, according to University of Georgia President Michael Adams.
The new venture, Adams said, truly is a partnership between UGA and Medical College of Georgia, which is expanding its offerings in Augusta even while adding the satellite campus in Athens.
"Nobody's going to take over MCG," Adams told The Augusta Chronicle 's editorial board Thursday morning. "I think, frankly, we helped (Augusta) get the dental school."
Construction on MCG's new $112 million dental school is expected to be finished by next summer.
The first class of 40 students, all Georgia natives, has enrolled in the Athens satellite campus, which is being temporarily housed in two refurbished mill buildings along the North Oconee River.
Once the former Navy Supply Corps School campus is ready, the medical campus will move there, along with UGA's College of Public Health.
By 2020, plans call for MCG's School of Medicine to have incoming classes of 300 students each year, with 240 in Augusta and 60 in Athens. Currently, incoming classes are 230, including the 40 in Athens.
Adams said about a dozen UGA faculty are currently teaching medical students in Athens, with about three or four of them teaching full time.
It won't cost UGA much to renovate the Navy Supply Corps School campus. Adams said the university has paid $10 million to the local redevelopment authority, and that money will be put in a trust fund to be used for homeless assistance. Six homeless assistance providers will receive $7.9 million for construction and a funding reserve, as per the conditions set for redeveloping the former federal land.
"For that $10 million, we got an $85 million piece of property with 24 buildings on it," Adams said. "Remember, the Navy Supply Corps School was a school, and that campus was built like a small college. It has a campus library, a gym, classrooms, an infirmary, and they are in better shape than some of our facilities."
Adams said UGA will have to build a gross anatomy laboratory much like the one that exists in the building temporarily housing the medical campus, but much of the equipment there is "easily transferable."
He added that the College of Public Health, with its 250 graduate students and 600 underclassmen, will take up the bulk of the Navy Supply Corps School space.
The partnership will help both the college and university, Adams said, because UGA brings well-established science and research, while MCG has been a "very fine clinical" institution for many years.
The UGA president said he has spoken of the new medical campus in several public forums in Augusta, and he has answered tough questions.
"It's pretty hard to run and hide from that crowd," he said. "And not that I should. ... I don't know that many people would tell you that I tried to avoid the issue. I started talking about this in 1997."
Adams described the 2005 availability of the Navy Supply Corps School site as "manna from the sky" because previous discussions with former MCG President Daniel W. Rahn about the joint venture lacked a location.
Turning to UGA's overall situation, Adams described what has become a familiar refrain among any entity that receives state funding. UGA has lost about $110 million in funding in the past two years.
"This is my 24th year as a college or university president, and my 14th year at UGA," he said. "The last 24 months have been the toughest to bring the (revenue and expenditure) lines together I've ever seen."
This funding shortfall is speeding up a process that had already begun as the number of high school graduates applying for slots at UGA increased: The university has become much more selective. The number of applicants continues to increase, Adams said, and the number of openings for freshmen is dropping because of funding cuts.
Someone remind Mr. Adams that the dental school was already in Augusta. He didn't help us get anything. It HAD to be refurbished and enlarged.
We spend millions on converting the mill buildings and now we will spend many more millions remodeling the Navy buildings.
I'm interested in these faculty members he described. The dozen faculty members were already at UGA? 3 to 4 will teach full time at the medical school? Is he implying this is going to be the faculty for a medical school that will have hundreds of students in 4 years?
In reality, the costs for the faculty and support staff will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars in a very few years.
I agree with Riverman. How did Adams help to get the Dental School here,when it already existed? Man does he have an ego!!!!
I think he means the new $112 million dental school under construction.. It's a brand new building opening in the Medical Distirct June of 2011.cBy 2020, the MCG freshman class size will be second-largest in the country, a class of 300, with 240 at the Augusta campus and 60 in Athens.
The State of GA has a finite amount of money that it will allocate to the Medical School. That money is now going to have to be split with another city. That means 50% of the buildings will get built there. 50% of the local benefit to sub-contractors will go to Athens, not Augusta. 50% of the staff & support staff will be hired there, eventually 50% of the students will live there.
This is money straight out of our community's pocket and into the pocket of the citizens of Athens. Our real estate, our restaurants, our local shops, our tax revenue, everyone & everything will be impacted by this. Not today, but in 3-5-10 years time we will feel the pinch.
Augusta is a loser in this deal. No matter how they try to sugar coat it.
Maybe Augusta needs to start getting off the government teet to float its economy. In any event, I believe MCG in Augusta is also being expanded, not downsized. But the fact remains that Augusta's economy relies way too heavily on government spending and government jobs. We need to move more towards a private sector based economy here in Augusta. MCG is a great asset to the community, and I believe it will be expanded... not reduced. There is a huge doctor shortage in Georgia. We will need to educate more and more new physicians. And by the way, this is a STATE medical school, paid for by STATE taxes from all over. The purpose is to educate more doctors to serve the state of Georgia.. it is not The Augusta Medical School whose sole reason for being is to prop up Augusta's economy.
BOHICA Augusta!....Does not represent a takeover....today.
Of course you could put Barnes back in the governor's office.. he was always known to steer the bacon to Augusta.
Reading comprehension -- "Adams said about a dozen *UGA* faculty are currently teaching medical students in Athens, with about three or four of them [UGA faculty] teaching full time." There are currently over 20 faculty at the Athens branch. All of them are MCG faculty *except* those UGA faculty mentioned by Adams. The number of faculty will grow some as the number of students increases.
I wonder how many times I need o remind that the Athens partnership campus is funded out of a separate allocation from the state. MCG-Augusta money does not go to that campus.
Reading comprehension -- "...we got an $85 million piece of property with 24 buildings on it," Adams said. "Remember, the Navy Supply Corps School was a school, and that campus was built like a small college. It has a campus library, a gym, classrooms, an infirmary, and they are in better shape than some of our facilities." Those buildings may require some renovation. I'm not sure where the idea that "50% of the buildings will get built there." There are currently building projects under way and planned for the near future at MCG in Augusta as the campus here expands its enrollment. At present, I don't think there are any new buildings planned for the Naval property campus.
Hoewever, Emerydan is correct. The goal of the state is to increase the number of health professionals educated to meet the needs of this state. The number that can be educated at the MCG campus is limited. You cannot educate doctors and other health rofessionals unless they can get experience seeing patients. And there are a finite number of patients in Augusta. Period. It is necessary to go where the patients are. MCG already sends students to Albany and Savannah for some training, because of this. The new school in Athens is a necessary and reasonable solution for the state as a means to educate more doctors.
DanK said: "Reading comprehension -- "Adams said about a dozen *UGA* faculty are currently teaching medical students in Athens, with about three or four of them [UGA faculty] teaching full time." There are currently over 20 faculty at the Athens branch. All of them are MCG faculty *except* those UGA faculty mentioned by Adams. The number of faculty will grow some as the number of students increases. I wonder how many times I need o remind that the Athens partnership campus is funded out of a separate allocation from the state. MCG-Augusta money does not go to that campus."
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This is supposed to make us in Augusta feel better? There must be a line in this about comprehension before you WRITE somewhere. The faculty at Athens is growing and it will end up costing hundreds of millions in salaries and retirement pay.
There is a common sense aspect that you don't comprehend. There's only so much money to be spent on medical education in Georgia. Allocation of funds will eventually come down to the Athens medical school demanding more as time goes on to the detriment of MCG Augusta.
Hiding the future costs is deceptive and another example of the flimflam that has been used since the deal was made in secret meetings in motel rooms with Dan Rahn and Adams to create an Athens medical school.
The state is in the biggest budget crisis of the last 50 years and somehow a new medical school is started that will cost an astronomical amount. Astounding.
Michael Adams is like a tattooed, toothless carney worker telling us to put our money down because everyone is going to win and we will all have a giant stuffed Elmo doll to take home.
Increasing education of doctors and dentists is one of the best things Georgia can do.
Now, lets also do something about programs to reduce the cost of our future doctors and dentists to get their education and training. How about a trade-off - scholarships for those who will work at least four-five-six years in an underserved area of Georgia?
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