University of Illinois President Timothy L. Killeen has enlisted a transition team to guide the process of reconfiguring UIC’s medical school structure in light of the creation of an Urbana-based medical school.
The team was formed following the May 7 recommendation of a task force led by B. Joseph White, U. of I. President emeritus.
The task force recommended detaching the Urbana campus from the current UIC regional medical school structure, which serves 1,300 students and will retain its campuses in Chicago, Rockford and Peoria.
It also recommended a 7-year phase-in period to allow current students to complete the Urbana-based Medical Scholars Program for M.D.s/Ph.D.s. Under that timetable, the final class would graduate in the 2021-22 academic year, and MSP enrollment would be halted for two years and restarted in 2018 under the Carle-Illinois College of Medicine banner.
Killeen said the transition team would fulfill the directives of the task force.
“This team is charged with working to solve transition problems with students, staff and faculty as the existing UIC regional campus in Urbana is phased down,” he said.
He asked the team to develop a transition plan “that is agreed upon by the leadership of both campuses,” identify the costs associated with the move and communicate the plan’s timely implementation.
“The transition team is vested with the authority to make joint decisions on behalf of the provosts of the Chicago and Urbana-Champaign campuses,” he said.
Leading the team is Greg Freund, a professor and the head of Urbana’s department of pathobiology.
He is joined by Feng Sheng Hu, a professor and the associate dean for life and physical sciences in Urbana’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Larry Tobacman, the director of the M.D./Ph.D. program in UIC’s College of Medicine. They will serve as provost designees for each campus.
Jim Slauch, a professor and the director of the MSP, and Matthew Wheeler, a professor in Urbana’s department of animal sciences and a member of the Senate Executive Committee, also were named to the transition team.
Killeen also appointed Sharon Donovan, an Urbana professor and the Melissa M. Noel Endowed Chair in Nutrition and Health, as the team’s ombudsman to assist in the transition.
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