Fundraising for CMED still halfway complete, LCME will take accreditation vote in Feb.
Fundraising for CMED remains about halfway complete with 50.57 percent of $25 million raised thus far.
The funds raised for CMED's development will be divided up into three areas: facilities, scholarship and operations, Vice President of Development and External Relations Kathy Wilbur said.
Wilbur said over $5.4 million of the $15 million goal has been raised toward the school's Mount Pleasant and Saginaw facilities, about $5.8 million of the $8 million goal toward scholarship has been collected and $1.3 million has been raised for operations, which the committee hopes to designate $2 million for.
"As I mentioned, there is one land gift," Wilbur said. "There are a couple life insurance policies that are a part of this, but for the most part, these are pledge payments that will be paid out anywhere from over two years to seven years."
Finances and the timeline for preliminary, provisional and full accreditation for CMED were discussed at Wednesday's Board of Trustees' CMED committee meeting.
Wilbur said an important step for CMED will come next Monday when the committee will begin planning for the Saginaw medical school.
"The meetings will take place really to kick off the planning for that space over in Saginaw," Wilbur said. "We have been doing some individual fundraising in Saginaw already, but many folks have been very clear: 'We are waiting to see what the space will look like.'"
Ernest Yoder, founding dean of CMED, said the survey visit by Liaison Committee on Medical Education in mid-November gave positive feedback and that LCME found the school compliant in all areas. He said he hopes the medical school will receive preliminary accreditation after a LCME vote in February, and the CMED committee should receive a letter regarding the results in March.
Yoder said the school is expecting to receive provisional accreditation from LCME in 2015, and full accreditation in 2017.
Yoder said the school must now develop the rest of the instruction and tests for students as they continue to hire and work with the CMED faculty.
"The challenge is that we need to finish the program development. So we've designed the curriculum," Yoder said. "Now, what we're actively doing is designing the instruction and designing the assessments for the students and that has to be done by faculty."
Of the 30 foundation scientists that CMED hopes to hire, Yoder said the school currently has about 14. The medical school will also employ 80 clinicians, and about 40 to 45 have committed.
