With deans and Provost Steve Leslie at a press conference this morning to answer questions about UT's future medical school
November 6, 2012, will be remembered as a momentous day in the history of The University of Texas. It was the day that a UT Austin medical school became a reality.
Yesterday, the voters of Travis County agreed, through passage of Proposition 1, to add the final crucial piece of the funding puzzle to this complex project. It would not have happened without the energy and leadership of Sen. Kirk Watson, and I want to thank him again for sharing our passion for this issue and leading the charge so ably. Additionally, I would like to thank our Board of Regents and the Seton Healthcare Family for supplying the school’s other major building blocks. Healthy ATX and its members as well as UT students themselves were crucial to the initiative’s success. I am sure that numerous other partners will join the project in time.
A medical school will forever change the scale and scope of UT Austin education and research, and it will bring much needed specialties and community health care to Central Texas. In the coming months, we will form a steering committee of academic and medical leaders, begin the search for the school’s inaugural dean, finalize the financial strategy, and move swiftly ahead on numerous logistical fronts such as where to construct the school’s teaching hospital and academic buildings. Our goal is to open the school to its first 50 students in the fall of 2015.
I’m grateful to the citizens of Travis County for their vote of confidence in UT Austin’s ability to leverage our state’s flagship university for the betterment of the whole community. I’m equally excited about what this will mean for our faculty and students in the years and decades ahead.
What starts here changes the world.
Syed says
What doctorate programs will be available? Specifically, will there be a nursing to doctor program?
Marina Travis says
This is a great landmark in UT and Austin history. We look forward to having this new community resource, and to the salutary effect this will have on the practice of medicine here in Central Texas.
Julian Bridges, Ph. D. says
Congratulations! We have a granddaughter who is at UT and is pre-med.
julie says
I hope that the new medical school will incorporate both Eastern and Western practices. The two practices together make for a more balanced science… And provide better care for treating the body as a whole.
Uzma Iqbal says
.President Bill Powers,
. I want to congratulate you on this historic achievement. A medical school at UT Austin is a dream that came true for many students.
My son is one of them. This is the first year he was eligible to vote and was thrilled to see an issue so close to his heart on the ballot. A lot of students feel empowered as they were part of this historic decision using their constitutional right to Vote.
I want to offer my help in any way it may be required. I am a physician and I have served as faculty at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Congratulations again to all involved in this endeavor.
Uzma Iqbal
catherine graham says
IT IS VERY EXCITING FOR UT TO HAVE A AUSTIN BASED MEDICAL SHCOOL…IT IS MY HOPE THAT WITH THE CHANGING MEDICAL/HEALTH SYSTEM , THE NEW SCHOOL WILL HAVE BRILLANT CANDITATES AND AS MUCH SUCCESS AS THE OTHER SCHOOLS HAVE HAD BEFORE OBAMA CARE BECAME A REALITY…
Elinor Donnell says
What great news re:the medical school passing: Congratulations to all who worked so long and hard on making this a reality. This really does help change the world!