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Morgan State University is one step closer to opening the first new medical school affiliated with a historically Black college or university in nearly 50 years after winning state Board of Public Works approval to lease space for the school on its Baltimore campus.
The proposed Maryland College of Osteopathic Medicine at Morgan State has two primary goals, the founders say — increase the number of Black doctors entering the profession and, in turn, increase Black Baltimore residents’ access to physicians that look like them. Fewer than one in 10 medical school graduates today are Black, American medical college data shows.
Planning for the proposed school began in 2018 when representatives of a Denver-based company called Salud Education approached administrators at Morgan State to gauge their interest in partnering to start a new institution. The company previously helped to open medical schools at New Mexico State University, Idaho State University and elsewhere.
“It’s not that we wanted a medical school,” said Sidney Evans, Morgan State’s executive vice president for finance and administration. “The medical school wanted us.” But now, Evans considers his years of planning to get the new school off the ground “one of the most fulfilling professional opportunities I’ve had.”
Medical schools connected to state colleges and universities are typically subsidiaries of them. In this case, the proposed medical school will be a separate, privately operated entity affiliated with Morgan. That means no state funding will be needed to build a facility for the school or operate it.
The new school will be constructed on Argonne Drive, where the Montebello Complex sits now.
Read more: https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/higher-education/morgan-state-to-open-a-medical-school-first-at-a-historically-black-university-in-decades-PL27ZJBLDNEIJLKUCMPN4MOD6M/
