01/25/12: Wrong prescription, at least for now

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

ABOUT TWO MILES separate Old Dominion University and Eastern Virginia Medical School. A bill introduced by Del. Johnny Joannou seeks to discover whether they should be brought closer together — not physically but institutionally.

Joannou’s bill, HJ173, requests a study on merging the two, including the financial implications of doing so. Those implications may simply be too great to overcome.

ODU began in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary. It became an independent institution in 1962 and achieved university status in 1969. The school now has nearly 24,000 students. It is a state university, and as such, its employees are state employees and the university receives regular state funding.

Eastern Virginia Medical School is, according to its website, “the only school of medicine founded by a grass-roots effort of the local community.” The General Assembly created a medical authority in 1964 to start the school, and EVMS enrolled its first class in 1973. It is one of only a handful of independent medical schools in the country.

Nearly 5,000 applications were received for its approximately 120 M.D. slots. In addition to providing medical education for aspiring doctors and other health professionals — it has 10 degree and certificate programs — the school provides primary and specialty health care. It also undertakes research in a number of areas, including diabetes, obesity and metabolic diseases and cancer.

Although created by the General Assembly, EVMS is a private institution. It does not receive regular funding like state schools, part of the understanding made at the time of its creation. It was included in the 2008 bond package for higher education construction, and in exchange, EVMS agreed to increase its class sizes and to have seven of its board members appointed by the General Assembly and the governor.

Gov. Bob McDonnell is an advocate for increasing degrees in STEM disciplines — science, technology, engineering and math — and has proposed $3.5 million a year in his budget for medical education at EVMS. If approved, the state’s funding for the school would increase to $16 million annually for education and $24 million total.

But it takes quite a bit more to run a medical school: EVMS operates on revenues of nearly $200 million, including the amounts from the state. Its employees are not state employees and, therefore, are not included in the beleaguered Virginia Retirement System. The state does not pay for other items at the school, like building maintenance.

Bringing EVMS into the state system, via a merger with ODU or by other means, would cost the state millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars.

In the meantime, ODU, a state agency, remains underfunded when compared to other state schools. Extra funding last year and the amount proposed in the governor’s budget still will not bring the university up to par with its peers. I believe the General Assembly has an obligation to rectify this first — not an easy task given the current economic climate.

I am thrilled to see that most of the Hampton Roads delegation has signed on to co-sponsor Joannou’s bill. It is a rare display of bipartisanship and support for these two fine schools. But we don’t need a study to tell us what we already know: We can’t afford a merger right now.