Speak out about MSU expansion

I am sure that many of you have read news accounts of an upcoming decision regarding a satellite campus of the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. The decision by MSU officials to help us address the healthcare needs of southeast Michigan is one that we have applauded. Indeed, we have every reason to expect that a panel that was convened several weeks ago would, if given the time to meet and discuss the situation in our region, provide us all with a coherent plan for addressing the predicted physician and health care professional shortages and the ongoing needs for healthcare and medical education.

What has us concerned is the pending decision regarding the location of the MSU program expansion into our region. The medical school campus that we share with the DMC is one of two options being considered and, in the most recent idea being discussed by MSU and the DMC, MSU would train 50 students in its first year, and eventually 200 students, at the DMC. The other location that has been discussed is a site in Macomb county, and the most recent signs are that MSU might elect to house its programs at both locations, or to somehow split the program between these two locations. This has been represented as a "win-win" situation for the DMC and Macomb.

We think this is not a win-win situation, because the Wayne State University School of Medicine and citizens of southeast Michigan will lose in this scenario. We believe that MSU officials should be encouraged to seek a solution for medical education, for the citizens of southeast Michigan, and for both of our fine research universities.

The members of our Board of Governors, the Dean and senior administration of the Medical School, and my staff and I have all made every effort to clarify our position regarding this upcoming decision. We have reached out to MSU, to local and state government officials, to prominent members of the medical community, to our many supporters in the private sector, and to the local media. We have endeavored to clarify the consequences of any MSU presence on the WSU/DMC campus. The risks are substantial, and we think everyone is southeast Michigan should be aware of them. Further destabilization of the Wayne State University Medical School relationship with the DMC, and a diminished WSU Medical School presence in the city of Detroit are just two of the costs of a decision to place the MSU program on the WSU/DMC campus. We seek to preserve and extend the economic impact of Wayne State University, to work with our regional partners to provide the best healthcare possible for the citizens of our region, and do what is best for the education of the physicians that will serve Michigan now, and for many years to come. The impact of the proposal on these aspirations has not been given due consideration, and has been trivialized and swept aside as irrelevant.

As we have voiced our concerns and offered our views regarding the next steps, we have also had to address a number of questionable statements that have been circulating in the media and around our community about our university and the School of Medicine and its graduates. To set the record straight, we have shared the facts with individuals we have reached out to, and we feel it is important for you to know the facts as well. Our friends and colleagues in the School of Medicine have constructed a website that contains a compilation of these facts, along with a summary of the news coverage regarding this important decision. Recently, both the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press called on the MSU trustees to await the forthcoming recommendations from a panel of community business leaders and healthcare professionals.

As further news develops, you can find updates on this website. There you will also see some of the actions that have been taken by those who want their voice to be heard, and there is an opportunity for you to lend your voice to this decision. You can access this website by clicking on the link provided here, or by copying this address into the address bar of your web browser.
http://www.med.wayne.edu/beheard/

Sincerely,

Irvin D. Reid
President
Wayne State University