By Nick Bond
The latest in a long line of rumored additions to the University seems to be coming to fruition as the administration reaches the final planning stages for a University Medical School.
Bernard Firestone, dean of the Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (HCLAS) and the head of the Medical School Advisory Board, said President Stuart Rabinowitz began talks with members of the North Shore Long Island Jewish Health Care System (NS-LIJ) in early May about the possibility of a medical school. Firestone said the talks progressed well, and Rabinowitz is expected to make an announcement as early as the end of this month regarding whether or not the University will go forward with the plans.
Officials in University Relations were not immediately available for comment.
As it stands, the University would be the home of classrooms and labs, while several of the hospitals within the NS-LIJ system would serve as the teaching hospitals, according to Robert Seagull, chair of the biology department. Seagull said the partnership makes sense, because “Hofstra is in a prime place to develop a medical school,” citings its proximity to other important medical schools and LIJ-run hospitals..It also fills a void by becoming the only private medical school on Long Island, he added.
Concern about draining funds from other departments as well as a fear of only being able to enroll rejects from established medical schools are some concerns that were explored during the negotiation process.
Information regarding issues such as housing for students and the location and cost of construction of academic buildings are still yet to be unveiled.
Firestone hopes for a program that will allow undergraduate students to get on a fast track to medical school admittance through one of the science departments, similar to LEAP, for prospective Hofstra Law students.
As with information about the logistics and development of academic buildings, academic programs will be under the purview of a new dean, who has yet to be chosen. The choice should be announced either at the same time as the medical school or shortly thereafter, according to Firestone.
Addressing fears of student quality, Seagull said he felt that the medical school will not be seen as a fall back “to go to if [one] does not get in anywhere else,” but rather as an “alternative to the Johns Hopkins” caliber institutions.
The school will be able to get quality medical students, he said, because “many, many highly qualified students go to foreign medical schools” as a result of the lack of spaces available at the more established medical schools.
Members of the University also look to the medical school to raise the profile of the undergraduate
science departments and the University as a whole.
“When you think of Hofstra, you don’t usually think of science,” said sophomore biology major Edore Ohimor, who added that the medical school would “make the school more than just a business school.”
Seagull and Firestone both expressed hope that the University will enjoy more national recognition with the medical school, and Seagull said he sees it as the next logical step for the University.