ECU trustees agree to seek dental school
By Jennifer White, The Daily Reflector
Saturday, February 25, 2006
ECU took the first steps Friday to bring a dental school to the region.
The university's Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution calling for the development of such a school. If approved by the UNC Board of Governors and funded by the Legislature, the school could admit its first class in three years.
The Board of Governors could give approval as early as the spring, Dr. Greg Chadwick, East Carolina University associate vice chancellor for oral health, said.
The dental program would take at least three years to develop once funding is approved, Chadwick, a former president of the American Dental Association, said.
"This obviously is the first official step, and I can't tell you how excited I am about this step," Chadwick said. "The first step is usually the hardest. I would anticipate there's going to be many more difficult steps down the road."
If the Board of Governors' gives its approval, a funding request would be submitted to the General Assembly when its short session begins in May.
North Carolina ranks 47th among states in the ratio of dentists to population, Chancellor Steve Ballard said. In rural areas, the problem is worse. Four counties in eastern North Carolina have no dentists at all, and three counties have only one dentist each.
The proposed dental school will fall under ECU's health sciences division. Board members agreed that the dental school will recruit minority students, train primary care dentists and provide care to rural and underserved regions of the state, a model that has guided the Brody School of Medicine since its inception.
"This is not something to compete with the dental school of Chapel Hill," said Mike Lewis, vice chancellor of health services. "It's something, in many ways, that can coordinate, at least we hope so."
The dental school will admit students who are interested in serving in rural areas. It will also, like the medical school, only admit North Carolina residents.
"That may be one reason why we've had so much success in keeping our medical graduates in the state," Lewis said.
The university plans to develop eight to 10 oral health centers in rural areas throughout the state where dental students will learn and work during their fourth year of study.
Robbie Hill, chairman of the health sciences committee, said the dental school will cost about $80 million to build. The main school will cost about $50 million, he said, and the satellite centers will cost an additional $30 million.
"I do believe if we accomplish getting a dental school at ECU, even just getting it approved, then if nothing else, I can honestly look at my tenure on the board and say we accomplished a great thing for eastern North Carolina," Hill said.
Also during Friday's board meeting:
Colonial The board announced that the groundbreaking for the East Carolina Heart Institute will take place March 31. The $210 million facility is a collaborative effort between Pitt County Memorial Hospital, University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina and ECU's Brody School of Medicine. Completion is slated for late 2008.
Colonial The board approved an agreement that allows ECU police officers to make inquiries and arrests off-campus for crimes occurring on campus. Garrie Moore, vice chancellor for student life, said the university owns property off-campus and many of its students live off-campus.
"Our police officers are trained with how to work with students in a very special way," Moore said. "It's going to be make a big difference in terms of retaining these students and making productive citizens out of them."
ECU police officers will continue to work cooperatively with the Greenville Police Department and the sheriff's department.
"There were many situations where our officers ran into situations and really needed to act," ECU Police Chief Robert Stroud said. "I think it will give us a lot more authority."
Stephen Shoferty, board chairman, said the change will make ECU students safer.
"I think it's clearly a safety issue for our students, which is the number one priority," he said. "We can't accept Greenville's responsibility to keep our students safe."
Colonial The board approved the building plan for the Coastal Studies Institute, a project between ECU, the University of North Carolina system and Dare County to develop 40 acres of property in Manteo. The project has received $1.3 million for advanced planning. The institute will bring a marine science program that includes research and education for faculty members from UNC institutions.
ECU is leading the project and will be responsible for operating and maintaining the facility.
Colonial Provost James Smith said that ECU projects it will increase its credit hours for distance education courses by 18 to 20 percent next year.
"It's going up because we're offering things totally online, whole degrees that haven't been available before," Smith said. "People can work and have families and still get a degree, working whenever they can. We're leading the system in that by a considerable amount."
Credit hours for traditional students are projected to increase by 2 percent next year. Smith said the increases will yield about 40 new faculty positions, 38 of those teaching distance education courses. Smith said that over the last five years, the school has added 400 to 500 faculty positions, and 80 percent of those were added because of increases in distance education courses.
The trustees' meeting, which lasted seven hours, was held in Mendenhall Student Center.
Jennifer White can be reached at jewhite@coxnc.com and 329-9571.
