Saturday, April 11, 2009
Red 13 Black 3
You know college football is big in Georgia when for your spring game: 1)About 40,000 show up, and 2)It's covered live on ESPN and Herbstreit does the play-by-play.
Yes, I know that that many or more will show up for the A-day game in Tuscaloosa next week. But it is Easter weekend, and The Masters is underway, so there!
Labels: Bulldogs, college football, to hell with Tech, UGA
|Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Did the Medical School in Athens just Hit a Snag ???
Word out today that Medical College of Georgia president Dan Rahn has accepted the position of chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Dr. Rahn was one of the driving forces behind MCG expansion to Athens and beyond. How will his departure , along with the tough economic times the state is experiencing, affect the new medical school?
Dr. Rahn's move to Little Rock has yet to be scheduled. Some Augusta-area politicians want to him to go ahead and pack the U-haul:
The Augusta community is not happy about the potential for a medical school in Athens. Those who are familiar with both cities will agree with me that Athens provides a more "student friendly" environment than does Augusta.
The Board of Regents website about the expansion is here. |
Word out today that Medical College of Georgia president Dan Rahn has accepted the position of chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Dr. Rahn was one of the driving forces behind MCG expansion to Athens and beyond. How will his departure , along with the tough economic times the state is experiencing, affect the new medical school?
Dr. Rahn's move to Little Rock has yet to be scheduled. Some Augusta-area politicians want to him to go ahead and pack the U-haul:
When Dr. Rahn will become a chancellor is still an open question. He said Arkansas officials have assured him that they will be flexible and that it could be any time between July 1 and the end of the year. There are many projects at MCG, such as finalizing funding for the new building for the School of Dentistry and firming up plans for new student housing, that he wants to complete.
"There are a number of things that I really want to see through to finish well in my current position," Dr. Rahn said, "and then have a smooth transition as the search goes forward for the next president at MCG."
It is for those same reasons, however, that state Sen. Ed. Tarver, D-Augusta, would like a shorter process. Mr. Tarver said he didn't know whether "in this instance a long goodbye is in the best interests of MCG, with the number of extremely important decisions that are being made regarding the future of MCG both in Augusta and statewide. It raises the question of whether or not moving forward as quickly as possible to select new leadership would be a better strategy in this case."....
...."I would like to see the search started as quickly as possible," Mr. Tarver said. "And that a new leader be identified for the Medical College of Georgia at the earliest possible date. And if necessary that the institution move as quickly as possible to identify an interim while their search is ongoing."
The Augusta community is not happy about the potential for a medical school in Athens. Those who are familiar with both cities will agree with me that Athens provides a more "student friendly" environment than does Augusta.
The Board of Regents website about the expansion is here. |
Monday, November 19, 2007
Georgia 24 Kentucky 13
For the second straight week the Bulldogs' performance was directly poroprtional to the volume of beer Dr. Parker consumed.
Next week:
No beer for sale at Grant Field, however...
Labels: Bulldogs, college football, to hell with Tech, UGA
|Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Georgia 42 Florida 30
The things that will get one writing again. Great game and I learned that there is at least one other physician blogger who roots for the Dogs.
Fellowship has been fun for the most part, more on that later.
Labels: college football, UGA, What, you still blog?
|Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Leaving Disgusta.......
The talk of a branch medical campus in Athens has many in Augusta worried. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:Augusta bristles over talk of a UGA-med school link
The expansion to Athens is based on a lack of space in Augusta. The largest classrooms can only hold about 200 students, and there are plans to expand beyond that number.
The yellow area contains University Hospital and physician's offices. The red area contains public housing, green commercial, and blue is Payne College. MCG is contained fairly well.
The view from above:
Compare to the site in Athens:
The red line outlines the Navy School property, the yellow line to Athens Regional Medical Center. While the area may be smaller, what you cannot see is the close to 800 acres of land in Clarke county alone that the University owns, and the additional facilities there.
More reaction from Augusta:
So the apprehension is well-placed.
The talk of a branch medical campus in Athens has many in Augusta worried. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:Augusta bristles over talk of a UGA-med school link
Augusta —- With its sprawling campus, hundreds of medical students and millions in research dollars, the Medical College of Georgia has long been a jewel for this city east of Atlanta.
People in Augusta want to keep it that way.
For weeks, lawmakers and politicians here have waged an increasingly vocal turf war over plans to open an MCG campus in Athens, fearing the Augusta school would play second fiddle to the flagship if a joint UGA/MCG program goes forward as planned.
The expansion to Athens is based on a lack of space in Augusta. The largest classrooms can only hold about 200 students, and there are plans to expand beyond that number.
University system Chancellor Erroll Davis, along with MCG president Daniel Rahn and dean Douglas Miller, tried to calm fears in this community, answering questions about what the Athens campus would —- and would not —- be.MCG is limited by geography as well, as this map shows:
"The medical college is going nowhere," Davis told the crowd. "The focus will remain here."
On Friday, Gov. Sonny Perdue reiterated that point during his own trip to the city. He was in Augusta to announce a new T-Mobile customer service center, but instead was asked to respond to those who worry the expansion to Athens is the beginning of the end for MCG.
"We've invested hundreds of millions of dollars here in the last few years. We'll continue to do that," Perdue said. "One of the challenges of a medical education is the patient load. We've already overextended our capacity for patients here in this area. We're already exporting some of our residents out to other areas to get that clinical training. So it's a natural extension. The Medical College of Georgia is going to thrive right here in Augusta."
The yellow area contains University Hospital and physician's offices. The red area contains public housing, green commercial, and blue is Payne College. MCG is contained fairly well.
The view from above:
Compare to the site in Athens:
The red line outlines the Navy School property, the yellow line to Athens Regional Medical Center. While the area may be smaller, what you cannot see is the close to 800 acres of land in Clarke county alone that the University owns, and the additional facilities there.
More reaction from Augusta:
Barbara Simms, an Augusta state representative, said she worries medical students will chose Athens over Augusta if given the choice. The expansion proposal has "been met with sheer terror," she said.Having grown up in one of those places, and attended school in both, I can state that Ms. Simms' concerns are well-justified. The history between MCG and UGA has always been contentious, with MCG playing the role of the stepchild:
MCG's past to understand the skittish reaction of Augustans.
Since MCG's founding in 1828, the scrappy college has fought off numerous attempts by lawmakers to close the school or move it to Athens, he said.
In 1909, a Northerner named Abraham Flexner, who was sent around the country by the Carnegie Foundation to inspect medical colleges, recommended the Augusta campus close its doors.
"If the University of Georgia were to break the slender thread that connects them," he declared at the time, "the school could not survive the amputation."
Augusta residents and school officials balked, promising to make the school an integral part of UGA. The Legislature passed a bill giving UGA sole control over the Augusta school's property and assets and, over the next 20 years, the college operated solely as the medical department of UGA.
In the 1930s, the Board of Regents shut it down, citing a lack of classroom space and funding, and Augusta residents again rallied around their school, sending telegrams, letters and petitions to the regents. Gov. Eugene Talmadge, a regent, went to Augusta and, after seeing the public support for the school, promised to reopen it. But it wasn't until the 1950s that the medical college finally shed its ties to UGA and became a free-standing school, the only public health sciences college in the state.
So the apprehension is well-placed.
Labels: MCG, medical education, UGA
|Monday, January 15, 2007
Expanding the Empire.....
From the Journal-Constitution:Athens medical school just what the doc ordered
The site would be at the soon-to-be vacated Navy Supply Corps School located on some prime real estate in Athens. The site is adjacent to Athens Regional Medical Center.
MCG has already done this with its' nursing school. There is some talk of one day setting up an independant medical school at the Athens site:
From the Journal-Constitution:Athens medical school just what the doc ordered
Forty medical school students will begin attending a joint University of Georgia and Medical College of Georgia campus in Athens in 2009, paving the way for a new health science complex at the state's flagship university, UGA president Michael Adams said this week.
Adams, who gave a State of the University address Thursday, said Friday the collaboration could eventually put as many as 200 medical students in Athens, but he stopped short of saying UGA planned to develop its own medical college.
"What we proposed was a joint trial period," working with Medical College of Georgia, he said. "Nobody has committed to anything beyond that."
The site would be at the soon-to-be vacated Navy Supply Corps School located on some prime real estate in Athens. The site is adjacent to Athens Regional Medical Center.
Faculty members from both UGA and MCG will teach at the medical school, which MCG President Daniel Rahn described as a regional campus for the Augusta-based college.
In the past year, MCG has increased enrollment of first-year students from 180 to 190. Adding another 40 students a year in Athens beyond that number will help combat statewide and national physician shortages, he said.
The Association of American Medical Colleges has called for increasing enrollment of medical students by 30 percent by the year 2015 through expanding existing schools and creating new ones. After 20 years of no growth in the number of medical schools, several states, including Florida and Texas, are now building new ones.
Rahn said the Athens campus will be accredited and will use MCG's existing curriculum.
MCG has already done this with its' nursing school. There is some talk of one day setting up an independant medical school at the Athens site:
While no one is speculating publicly on whether the project could morph into a full-scale UGA medical school, the university has been placing an increasing emphasis on healthcare and research. In 2005, UGA opened a College of Public Health and a major center for biomedical and health sciences, and it has been ramping upThere has also been an Osteopathic school opened recently in Georgia.
the university has been placing an increasing emphasis on healthcare and research. In 2005, UGA opened a College of Public Health and a major center for biomedical and health sciences, and it has been ramping up bids for national research dollars. UGA and MCG already have partnerships in nursing and pharmacy programs.
Adams said, of the 10 largest states, Georgia is the only one without three public medical colleges. Currently, Medical College of Georgia is the state's only public medical school. Emory University, Mercer University and Morehouse College run private medical schools.
Labels: Georgia, MCG, medical education, UGA
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