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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (July 26, 1985)
Friday, July 26, 1985 The Nebraskan Page 3 n. eas msi ill! Q1 By Deb Pedcrson Senior Reporter Pharmacy owner John Ridgeway of Omaha captured the essence of 27 people's testimony given in support of retaining the College of Pharmacy at the NU Board of Regents' public hearing on Tuesday. "Eliminating the College of Phar macy... would be like eliminating the Nebraska foot ball team... Ridgeway "Eliminating the College of Pharmacy to make up the Medical Center's short fall would be like eliminating the Nebraska football team in order to fund the Nebraska basketball team," the 1971 graduate said in front of a standing-room-only crowd of 350. "It just doesn't make sense. And you can't turn a mediocre team into a championship team just with increased funding." But UNMC Chancellor Charles Andrews said developing and maintain ing an excellent Medical Center is his goal and he thinks closing the College of Pharmacy is the best alternative toward that goal. Andrews proposed phasing out the College of Pharmacy and the Lincoln nursing program to the Regents June 8 to make up for a $2 million shortfall in the Medical Center's budget. The shortfall was the latest of a string of budget problems and the future doesn't look promising, Andrews said. "Only twice in the last eight years has our state general 'fund increase surpassed the rate of inflation," Andrews said. "As a result, the Medical Center has lost, in real dollar terms, $2.7 milion during this period. In addi tion, the Medical Center has experi enced mid-year budget reductions in two of the last four years and a two percent reallocation of funds from vari ous programs last year." "It's also not ap propriate to close the Pharmacy Col lege to fund the Medical College. " Nelson Because of past, present and forsee able budget problems, Andrews said vertical program cuts were necessary. A list of eleven decision criteria was developed, including release of signifi cant funding, current and projected student demand, demand in Nebraska for the particular health professional, nationalregionallocal stature of pro gram, program availability in the state, significance of external funding, im portance of publiccommunity service, impact of closing on other programs, studentcommunityemployee sensi tivity, impact of rebuilding a program after discontinuance, and funding re quirements to make the current program excellent. Andrews admitted that his choice of programs for elimination was a value Ji Jl U. it sir '"WVT? r-t ms LJtfS:'- III VARIETY IN FOOD CcfTae Drexk M-F 8:33 a,m.-4 p.m. B TODa70NLY 7-26-85 ! r - n p CHEESEBURGER AND CURLY Q FRIES WITH COUPON 'unnnnrsnninnriri 11:3 "s" ST.r:rxTCCO.i Pt'nrsT c? t'Trn,- recite"'! judgment, one which the Dean of the college or Pharmacy, Arthur Nelson, vehemently opposed. Nelson said the Medical Center's budget problems stemmed back to when the state legislature was working on the budget. The Medical Center didn't effectively communicate the seri ousness of the budget problem to the state senators, he said. Moreover, once the appropriations had been approved, Andrews didn't include the faculty in the program reviews, Nelson said. "The Chancellor said he knew the Medical Center's budget best. But I suggest that the Dean of the College of Pharmacy knows the Pharmacy budget best," Nelson said, referring to himself. Nelson produced a considerable a mount of evidence demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of the pharmacy col lege and the college's importance. He also showed a different angle on UNMC's budget problem. He said he found a way to reduce the $2 million deficit to $900,000 through program reductions, such as consoli dation of basic science and increasing tuition by $600 to $1000 for an academic year. Already $110,000 has been pledged to ease the effect of the tuition increase on students for the first year, he said. The Pharmacy College currently has the lowest tuition rate among all the pharmacy schools in the Big Eight. The tuition increase would raise about $1 million, he said. With this plan, the Medical Center would recover in six years, which is when the state is expected to recover, he said. Nelson presented to the Regents a letter from Andrews to a state senator. The letter stated that the College of Medicine's budget increased by 20.4 percent, mostly because of "the transfer of Psychiatry funding ($2,467,593) from the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute to the college." The Psychiatry department's budget of about $3 million is more than UNMC's flagship department, Internal Medicine, at about $2 million, Nelson said. Most regional psychiatry departments have a budget of about $1.5 million, he said. "I am not suggesting taking funds from Psychiatry to Pharmacy," Nelson said. "I am suggesting an internal reallocation. It is not appropriate to take funds out of the Medical College to support the Pharmacy College. But it's also not appropriate to close the Pharmacy College to fund the Medical College." Nelson presented other alternatives, including selling University Hospital. Many medical schools, including Harvard and Michigan universities, don't own a hospital so it's not necessary that UNMC should have one, he said. Nelson wasn't alone in presenting alternatives to closing the pharmacy school. Leading pharmacists and exec utives of national pharmaceutical in dustries came to Lincoln from Washing ton, D.C., and other parts of the nation to stress the pharmacy school's import ance and suggest other alternatives. UNMC's pharmacy college is a na tional leader and innovator, the Execu tive Director of American Colleges of Pharmacy said. The relevance of other programs at UNMC were questioned, such as the liver transplant program, and it was suggested that the Medical Center ws placing too much emphasis on special ties and should go back to a primary care base. One parent that testified presented a petition with 60,000 signatures of Nebraska citizens who oppose closing the school. A number of Nebraska pharmacists testified that Nebraska has a shortage of pharmacists. Even state senator John DeCamp of Neligh sent a message stating, "1 would urge the Regents to consider alter natives to the closing of (pharmacy and Lincoln nursing) programs. The Dean of Purdue University's Pharmacy College, who is also a native Nebraskan and a graduate of NU, Varro Tyler, summed up the feelings of pharm acy supporters. Quoting from Daniel Webster's defense of Dartmouth College he said, "It is a small college. 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