The price of medicine

Medical schools are expensive.

The university has not denied this.

Yet, all the public has received are snippets of the cost – $15 million for expansions to the Health Professions Building, for example.

CMU should seek to release a total cost estimate by the end of the summer. It’s essential so that the public understands fully the commitment the university is getting into.

As University President Michael Rao noted during his interview Friday with Central Michigan Life, the school’s total price tag still is very much up in the air, depending on medical partnerships and other curricular plans.

This all is understandable. The university should not release obviously inaccurate estimates.

But Rao stated both that the search for an interim medical school dean is going well, and that partnerships are being pursued fruitfully.

The dean can work right away on accreditation matters and curriculum; the partnership largely will determine facilities. Such progress indicates the university is nearing a much clearer picture of its future medical school: its facilities, curriculum and needs.

Granting the university’s current pace, it is reasonable to expect administrators and trustees to release a plausible price tag encompassing all estimated costs. Again, an estimate need not be a precise figure; it should express only a range of expected costs.

Considering the school’s future will have come into much sharper focus, it’s challenging to deny that the Board of Trustees and administrators will not have such an estimate for themselves.

Right now, the public is very much in the dark, and many are concerned about the medical school’s total price tag. After all, the median salary for an associate professor of medicine was just more than $100,000, according to salary.com. Personnel costs alone will be steep, as will equipment needs.

As a public institution, CMU has a commitment to making clear why its resources are going toward particular purposes. And it can do this only by indicating how much of its money is going toward a particular project.

The university also could use the opportunity to allay public concern about financial strain. A funding estimate should include proposed funding sources, including fundraising goals.

A rough figure also would help potential donors understand the need for their commitment.

For now, however, the medical school’s plans remain only a rough sketch.

As soon as possible, the public deserves a crisper picture: a clear idea of what the university is getting into.