It has support from its parents, the university. It has financial support from other family, the Board of Trustees. The timeline of the school’s accomplishments to date is crawling, just starting to make strides in an effort to gain support — accreditation.

Central Michigan University’s Board of Trustees gave the go-ahead to former university president Michael Rao to begin the medical school project in September 2008.

His goal: to create a working facility with a 100 students enrolled and attending classes by fall 2012.

Since the Board’s approval, the medical school has employed an interim dean, Dr. Cam Enarson, to head the accreditation process. Enarson started July 1.

“It is necessary to understand the importance of a dialogue, and Dr. Enarson has come through in spades for this project in that matter. He has been meeting with CMU, the Mount Pleasant community and off-site communities explaining the project. He has come through in spades,” said Trustee Chairwoman Gail Torreano.

Contributions

In February, contributions were up to $302,000.

Rao and Sam Kottamasu, vice chairman of the Board of Trustees and medical school committee chairman, each pledged $100,000. Rao has since paid in full, Kottamasu has paid $20,000, and will continue to pay in $20,000 installments over the next four years.

Yet after Rao’s resignation, 1977 alumnus Todd Anson, a Mount Pleasant native, rerouted his $100,000 contribution to the renovation of Rose Arena, bringing the total income for the school to $202,000.

“We backed the medical school with our contribution dollar-for-dollar with Rao because we backed Rao. Once he left, the medical school didn’t have a president, Mike Rao, driving it forward anymore,” Anson said. “But this is by no means a withdrawal of support from the medical school.”

On Aug. 5, the university sent in an application, along with $25,000, for accreditation to the Liaison Committee on Medical Education in Chicago.

Enarson said the medical school cannot be fully accredited until fall 2016, after its first students graduate after a four-year degree.

Recent Developments

With the approval of another $22 million for an addition onto the Health Professions Building — a space that will house the medical school — the school marks its largest sum of funding since it was announced.

The expansion cannot exceed $24 million, the total combined with the already approved $2 million.

“It’s important to note: that’s the maximum,” said Interim University President Kathy Wilbur. “It’s not the beginning. It’s the beginning and the end.”

Another step in the process to receive full accreditation was complete in the last few weeks, when the university finalized its first three affiliation agreements with Saginaw medical facilities: St. Mary’s of Michigan, Covenant HealthCare and Synergy Medical Education Alliance.

Each have signed contracts — another significant step toward securing clinical opportunities for prospective students in their third or fourth years at the medical school, Kottamasu said.

MidMichigan Health of Midland and Mount Pleasant’s Central Michigan Community Hospital are also in talks with CMU, but have not yet confirmed any affiliation agreements.

Kottamasu said MidMichigan Health is expected to sign on in the next four to six weeks, but CMCH has not made any sign of commitment.

“Not yet,” Kottamasu said, “but they are significantly interested. The Mount Pleasant and Midland hospitals would be important for the rural communities of mid-Michigan.”

Search for founding dean

The university has already opened a search for the founding dean of the medical school. Wilbur said the dean will be chosen by December and, following, four associate deans will be recruited in January.

Enarson said four associate deans are required to meet accreditation standards.

Those include associate dean of medical education, associate dean of student affairs to provide student support services, associate dean of administration and finance and associate dean of clinical affairs to work with hospital relations.

Wilbur said university has set aside funding the last two years for the medical school’s operational needs that will be used for the cost of deans. She said no applications have come in yet.

Enarson said a development officer should be hired by the end of September and that person’s responsibility will be outreach to search for deans, faculty and staff.

He will speak at 7:30 p.m. today at Davenport University in Saginaw Township to discuss the procedures the school has planned to continue progression on the medical school.

He said it is not something that is born overnight, but people need to see the big picture.

“It wasn’t just Thursday’s approval of more money and now we can stop,” Enarson said. “This is more akin to running a marathon than a sprint. We’re in the early part of the race, but we know what we need to do to get across the finish line.”