In a move long debated, Florida Tech will soon announce a partnership with the medical school, interim president Robert King said.
King made the announcement Thursday morning in the Business Leaders’ Ballroom during the Melbourne Regional Chamber of Commerce keynote at the Crowne Plaza Melbourne Oceanfront.
King did not divulge any further details, and the University Public Relations Office declined to provide further details after his speech.
In an August 2020 interview with FLORIDA TODAY, King’s predecessor, T. Dwayne McCay, former president of the Florida Institute of Technology, said Melbourne could open an osteopathic school within three years.
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“We are about to announce a partnership with a medical school that will work on our campus and provide our students with a pathway to their education,” King told the audience in a speech Thursday.
Today, Florida Tech offers six science and engineering degrees that are considered “preliminary” programs for medical and veterinary schools, but the university does not offer premedical research majors.
Talk of launching a medical school at Florida Tech dates back to at least 2016, amid an unprecedented wave of physical expansion at the university and an initial boom in online enrollment. Around that time, it was named the third fastest growing campus in the nation among private nonprofit research institutions.
Florida Tech officials even considered a proposal by an unidentified foundation to establish a medical school near the campus boasting 140,000 square feet of classroom and research space, according to the minutes of a February 2016 faculty senate meeting. Did.
The proposal never left the blueprint.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in August 2020, officials at the Florida Institute of Technology announced a new “unique” partnership with the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and Steward Health Care, which operates Rockledge Regional Medical Center and Melbourne. ” advertised a medical student partnership. Regional medical center.
An initial small group of nine Burrell College medical students was enrolled and underwent clinical rotations in both the hospital and the Steward Medical Group clinic. Students have moved into off-campus residences at Florida Tech and have access to campus facilities and university dining services. The program remains active.
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McKay, who has been president of Florida Tech since July 2016, resigned in March, saying he wanted to pay more attention to his family.
King was appointed Interim President in June by the Florida Tech Board of Trustees, after Executive Vice President and Provost Marco Carvalho briefly served as Acting President.
King previously served as Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY). He also served as Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education at the US Department of Education, and for ten years he served as President of the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Council.
Meanwhile, search commissions and specialized search firms are in the midst of a multi-month search for the standing president.
Semi-finalist interviews are scheduled for December, and finalist interviews and nominations to the board are scheduled for January-March.
In mid-August, Florida Tech opened the 61,000-square-foot Gordon L. Nelson Health Science Building. It is designed to double the size of his undergraduate biomedical engineering program from 150 to 300 full-time students on campus.
Olin Quad’s new biomedical facility is also expected to increase the number of full-time students on campus from 150 to 250.
“One of the plans for this building is to educate biomedical engineers who go straight into medical school. We plan to serve medical research and serve the needs of the people here. in Florida through production,” McKay told FLORIDA TODAY in an August 2020 interview.
University spokesperson Adam Lowenstein said the Gordon L. Nelson Health Sciences building has active classrooms and laboratories, but the building is not yet in full operation.
Rick Neal South Brevard Watchdog Reporter for FLORIDA TODAY (For more on his story, visit click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or [email protected]. twitter: @RickNeale1
