Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
BOARD OF REGENTS: Panel advances plans for pharmacy school
Task force votes to proceed with programs in Las Vegas, Reno
By K.C. HOWARD
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Northern and Southern Nevada are at odds over preliminary plans for a pharmacy school in Clark County.
On Monday, the Board of Regents' Ad Hoc Health Education Task Force voted, 4-2, to move ahead with the 6-year program to train more pharmacists for work in Southern Nevada.
The vote for the Southern Nevada school was split on geographic lines with committee members from the north voting against the program.
But the committee also voted unanimously to go forward with an additional pharmacy school at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Both programs will need the approval of the full board and the Legislature before they can be finalized.
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the Community College of Southern Nevada, the Nevada State College at Henderson and Touro University, a private college, would join forces to create the school in Southern Nevada.
But some regents worried it would duplicate programs that are going to exist at UNR.
Initially, the two universities were meant to share faculty, facilities and students, said Caroline Ford, a committee member and director of UNR's Center for Education and Health Services Outreach.
But Southern Nevada's exploding population and Touro University's willingness to offer courses at its campus convinced local regents to seize a separate school, said Regent Mark Alden.
The southern school would also compete with a private pharmacy college, the University of Southern Nevada, located in Henderson, which offers the only pharmacy degree in Nevada.
It received 1,200 applicants, many from California, for fall 2004 and admitted 125 students.
Students enrolled in the three-year private college program paid $29,106 in tuition for the 2003-04 year. Regents estimated the new school would cost in-state students $8,500 per year if the Legislature approves a tuition assistance program that would subsidize $15,500 of the tuition, Alden said.
He hoped the school could open its doors in September 2005 to 40 Nevada residents and 40 out-of-state students, who would pay the full $24,000 tuition. Students would spend two years at the community college level and four years at UNLV and Touro University.
Dr. Iain Buxton, UNR planning dean of the proposed Nevada School of Pharmacy, said there is only room for two pharmacy colleges in Nevada, and UNR has more of the infrastructure in place to get up and running.
