NEOUCOM is in demand.

The Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy has taken center stage in a discussion about how best to reorganize Northeast Ohio's public universities, especially the University of Akron and Cleveland State University.

The University of Akron would like to see the medical school in Akron. Cleveland State University would like to see it in downtown Cleveland.

Although it's nice to be wanted, NEOUCOM President Dr. Lois Nora said she doesn't foresee a day when the medical school abandons Portage County's Rootstown Township for new digs in Akron or Cleveland.

Yes, she said, the school would like to build a greater presence in both cities. But, no, building a new medical school is not the most likely way to do that.

Talk of mergers or strengthened partnerships among Northeast Ohio's public universities has grown out of discussions about a new master plan for Ohio's higher education system, recently dubbed the University System of Ohio by Gov. Ted Strickland.

The idea is to get the state's 13 public universities to collaborate ''in a way that makes us globally competitive, creates economic opportunity, jobs for everybody,'' Eric Fingerhut, Ohio's chancellor of higher education, said Friday.

Opposed to move

Nora said she is glad people are discussing the importance of higher education in economic development. She's also glad that NEOUCOM is part of the discussion. But she doesn't foresee a new NEOUCOM campus sprouting in Akron or Cleveland.

For one thing, she said, building a school to replace the 12 buildings housing the college on its sprawling Rootstown campus would be a massive financial undertaking.

''Frankly, if anybody has that much money, I want to use it to grow the programs,'' Nora said. ''I don't want to spend money on moving vans.''

Another key factor is that Rootstown is a prime location to serve the colleges' three main university partners: UA, Kent State and Youngstown State.

But UA President Luis Proenza points out that 60 percent of the clinical training takes place in Akron hospitals.

Proenza envisions creating an academic health center at his school that would encompass a medical school, a nursing school and affiliated hospitals.

Considering that UA already has a college of nursing and Akron has three hospital systems, two of those three key pieces are in place. Only the medical school is missing. And Proenza said he can see NEOUCOM filling that void.

Collaboration

But even if that were to happen, he said, that wouldn't necessarily mean that NEOUCOM would leave Rootstown for Akron. Instead, he said, it could mean collaborating on targeted programs.

First on the agenda is a ''center of excellence'' for orthopedics, which would combine the clinical skills of Akron Children's Hospital, Akron General Medical Center and Summa Health System with the academic and research expertise of UA and NEOUCOM.

Pulling all five entities together into one center would increase grant money coming to the region for research, Proenza said.

NEOUCOM

The Ohio General Assembly created NEOUCOM in 1973. In 1981, the medical college received full accreditation and graduated its first class of 42 students. Since then, the college has graduated 2,248 future doctors, half of whom have remained in Northeast Ohio to practice medicine.

State government provides about 70 percent of NEOUCOM's $25 million annual budget.

The college offers a combined B.S./M.D. program in partnership with UA, Kent State and Youngstown State. In addition to those schools, Cleveland State is part of the educational consortium for the doctor of pharmacy program.

As the state's higher education chancellor, Fingerhut said it's his responsibility to create a master plan looking at ''how do we make all of our public universities across the state dynamic contributors to the economic growth of the entire state.''

At this point, though, it's all about gathering ideas.

''These are important conversations,'' he said. ''There are many approaches, and . . . we have been and are continuing to look at all of them.''

''Everyone has to be excited and move forward together,'' Fingerhut added. ''Ultimately, out of those conversations will be a shared vision, and it will be a combination of everyone's ideas.''