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By Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Saturday, Oct 20, 2007
In the last six months, Dr. Lois Nora, president of the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy, has seen at least 12 proposals on how her school should change.
The University of Akron would like to bring the medical school under its wing. Cleveland State University would like to become a full member of the medical consortium and absorb some of its programs.
''Everyone wants to do the right thing as they see it,'' Nora said of the ideas.
But what ''the right thing'' is remains to be seen.
In December, a regional study commission involving NEOUCOM and Northeast Ohio's four state universities must submit a plan to the state on how they will better collaborate.
But one needs to go no further than defining the role of NEOUCOM to see that collaboration will be difficult.
The 19 members of the commission are studying a dizzying array of proposals for NEOUCOM, UA, Kent State, Youngstown State and Cleveland State.
All of the university presidents are members.
They might shuffle programs, coordinate administrative functions, launch an Internet university, pool health care and develop a common application for enrollment.
Some or all of their ideas may become part of a statewide, 10-year plan that Eric Fingerhut, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, will submit to Gov. Ted Strickland in March.
''We want to make sure that our public higher education institutions drive the global competitiveness of the region,'' Fingerhut said. ''How do you begin to link all of these assets togeth er? That gives manner to all kinds of ideas.''
Strickland's goal is to increase enrollment in public colleges by half to about 750,000 students by 2017 and to make higher education an economic driver.
Regents spokesman Mike Chaney said the decision-making process will be transparent.
''We're going to be talking about lots of these pieces publicly before we put them together,'' he said. ''Unless everybody feels that this is the vision going forward, it won't work.''
Still, Strickland's mission is a challenge. Ohio has 14 tax-supported universities, 23 community colleges and 24 regional campuses that compete for students, state dollars and research funding and offer duplicate programs on different schedules and at different prices.
For example, UA has a two-year community college incorporated into its downtown campus. About 20 minutes away is another two-year college Stark State which shares parking lots with a Kent State branch campus.
YSU President David Sweet is pushing for a community college in the Youngstown area. But Kent State President Lester Lefton suggests that would hurt three Kent State branch campuses in the Mahoning Valley.
CSU President Michael Schwartz and the CSU trustees got the ball rolling for the Northeast Ohio study commission last year, asking the Ohio General Assembly to establish and fund it. The state chipped in $25,000 and the participating institutions came up with money and have applied for grants.
''Our thinking was that by collaborating we can achieve a great deal more than we can separately and competitively,'' Schwartz said. ''We all do some collaboration now but we're talking about exploring a deeper level.''
Cleveland plus Akron
One idea that has resurfaced is to merge the area's two urban institutions, CSU and UA. They would retain their identities but operate under a single governing board and chief executive.
UA President Luis Proenza and CSU President Michael Schwartz both say they are willing to consider the possibility, but, ''There is a great deal of 'thinking with one's mouth open,' which always runs the risk of becoming public and the foundation for all sorts of rumors,'' Schwartz told his university community by e-mail last month. ''This is all about brainstorming at this point.''
Last week, Schwartz said he believes Fingerhut aims to merge the schools in order to boost their ability to compete for research funding, but he wants to be sure a merger would benefit students.
''If we're trying to get to the future and all we're doing is rearranging the deck chairs, we're not going to get there,'' Proenza said.
He has ideas of his own. He has developed a model for what he calls ''A New University of Northeastern Ohio.'' It would include expanding the UA Research Foundation to help all Northeast Ohio universities develop practical applications from scientific research and guide them in commercializing and marketing their intellectual properties.
''We would build on the strengths of the University of Akron,'' Proenza said. ''We are offering to do that on behalf of everyone.''
What everyone wants
He also would develop an academic health center in Akron that would include a medical school, one or more affiliated hospitals and a college for nursing health sciences. The medical school he has his eye on is the one that everyone wants NEOUCOM.
''We believe this is the next and natural step to meet the needs of health-care professional training and to ultimately grow the research capability that is needed,'' Proenza said. A research center for orthopedics would be attached to it.
As it is now, he said, the consortium universities have modest relationships with NEOUCOM, and that wouldn't have to change. Each could continue to send their students to the medical school, for instance. And the medical school wouldn't have to relocate, although if it did the state could use the property in Portage County for another purpose, such as a community college.
In the eyes of UA officials, after all, the medical school was originally slated for Akron.
Rivalry was rife among Kent State, Youngstown State and UA in the 1960s for a medical college. UA officials thought they were at the head of the pack when then-Gov. James Rhodes promised the school to Akron, but that changed with a new governor.
Eventually the three universities joined forces to form a medical consortium that allows each to admit 35 students each year. The students spend the first two years at their home university campus, then go to NEOUCOM and participating hospitals in Canton, Akron and Youngstown.
Proenza thinks he may have an especially strong argument in bringing NEOUCOM to Akron, as 60 percent of students' clinical training already is done at Akron hospitals and UA has a nursing school.
''Most meaningful medical schools have budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars,'' he said. ''And that's best done in the context of an academic health center.''
However, Kent State has a school of nursing, too.
And at the same time, Cleveland State isn't willing to be left out of the medical school mix this time.
Schwartz, the president, would like to allow CSU students into the NEOUCOM medical program and possibly for some part of NEOUCOM to relocate to Cleveland. This year, CSU became part of the pharmacy consortium.
''There's some talk of locating separate functions in different places, '' he said. ''We'd like to have some kind of clinical training center up here. Our fundamental interest is in primary care physicians, internal medicine, OB/GYNs.''
NEOUCOM's view
For Nora, the physician and attorney who heads NEOUCOM, some of the proposals are more welcome than others.
She is adamant the medical college in Rootstown Township stay where it is, as a regional institution that shouldn't be tied to any one university. Also, it would cost more than $100 million to move money she'd rather invest in expanding the program to more students and into more specialties, such as dentistry.
She has recommended a common academic calendar for all institutions that work with NEOUCOM, but that idea has not caught fire with her colleagues.
She is in favor of an expanded presence in Akron, adding clinical training to Cleveland and expanding the program to include CSU students.
''It's a short time frame. Many great ideas are being floated,'' she said. ''At variable times, I have heard each of the three universities say they were interested in merging with NEOUCOM.
''As I have joked, it is the favorite model of every university president as long as we're merged with their institution.''
Somehow, the Northeast Ohio universities will be expected to put those competing interests aside in the next few months.
Fingerhut said Northeast Ohio's public universities have not differentiated their missions and more collaboration is needed.
''As we grow there will be more opportunities in higher education and more money being spent on higher education,'' Fingerhut promised. ''But you have to grow strategically.''
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com.
In the last six months, Dr. Lois Nora, president of the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy, has seen at least 12 proposals on how her school should change.
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