The USC Board of Trustees gave final approval Friday for the USC School of Pharmacy to begin integrating with the Medical University of South Carolina's pharmacy school, with a full merger planned to begin in a few years.
Trustees were quick to praise the administration on developing the final proposal, which calmed initial concerns from faculty members and students by stressing that changes would come slowly.
"As a health professional, I think this is one of the greatest moves we've ever made as the Board of Trustees," said Edward Floyd, a surgeon holding degrees from USC and MUSC.
Trustee Darla Moore, who with her husband has investments in intensive care and other health care initiatives, said administrators recognized that funds and resources could be better spent through cooperation with MUSC instead of in competition with it.
"I want to commend the administration for your stamina, your strength and your vision," she said.
Trustee Michael Mungo, who has served on the board since 1982, said the state is moving toward more consolidation in its higher education system in order to provide students what he said was the best it can offer. He said students should expect more consolidation among programs in the state's 36 institutions in the coming years.
Harris Pastides, vice president for research and the proposal's chief organizer, said the merger wouldn't be possible until faculties from both schools can come up with a unified curriculum. A search committee is expected to name an executive dean for the new school sometime next year with members from both universities involved with the hiring. Provosts from both universities will also have to hire a dean to oversee daily operations at each campus.
"I can't underestimate the importance of hiring a good executive dean, not only someone bright but someone who respects the traditions of both institutions," Pastides said.
The schools' will be fully merged when they seek a single accreditation after the last class of the current curriculum is graduated and the new curriculum is fully implemented. At that time, the newly formed South Carolina College of Pharmacy will have a single application and a single admissions process, but students will still have the choice of which campus they want to attend.
Pastides estimates because of curriculum committees and faculty hiring committees that need to be organized, the full merger won't be possible until about 2010. But, he said the period of integration now underway will show signs of research activity.
"I just think there's too much work to do and too much that needs approval to get a full merger before then," he said.
Pastides told the trustees that having the two schools compete as a single unit for grant money from the National Institutes of Health and other venerable sources would propel the merged school into the nation's elite in research capabilities.
The two universities combined take in about $325 million in external research funding and, acting as a single unit, would be ranked near the top 50 universities in the nation in that statistic and surpass private institutions like Emory University and the University of Chicago.
Outgoing board chairman Mack Whittle said many of the top universities receive a significant portion of their research funding through their medical and graduate schools and that MUSC, which has no undergraduate school, could better serve the state's undergraduate schools through garnering nationally competitive research money.
"We have been competing on an unfair playing field, and this plan would in essence help level that playing field," Whittle said.
Pastides has also proposed that faculty and administrators from both universities join to create a conflict resolution panel to address concerns from students as they arise over the next few years.
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