Recruiting For Med School Begins
by Darren Hunt
EL PASO –Officials at the Paul L. Foster School of Medicineare calling their accreditation as a four-year medical school one of the most significant announcements ever made regarding the future of El Paso.
Dr. Manny De La Rosa, the dean of the medical school, made the announcement official at a news conference outside the school Wednesday morning.
Officials now say the next step is to start recruiting students, which De La Rosa said began immediately after the accreditation.
Manny Schydlower, with admissions at the school, said 90 percent of the students need to be from Texas. “We are a state schooland are obligated to take 90 percent of our class from Texas … we do have an opportunity to take applicants from out of state, but only 10 percent,” he said.
Schydlower said there are no stipulations as to how many students need to be from El Paso.
The first class will consist of only 40 students, according to De La Rosa. He said it will soon grow to 80 students per class and the school will eventually have 320 students attending at one time.
De La Rosa said the students will study a number of medical fields but will concentrate on the school’s major mission, which is research of health issues prevalent to the border. These include diabetes, cancer and infectious diseases, he said.
The school is located right across the street from a laundry mat, a mini-mart and a Family Dollar store, but many expect that to change very soon. “The whole purpose of the medical school was to focus on research and what you’re going to see is businesses such as drug companies come here,” said State Representative Pat Haggerty.
Some business owners in the area are concerned. “Everything is going to be different; the rent, everything,” said Alberto Bear, the manager of Fast fix Shoe Repair, which has been at its location for 17 years. “We’re afraid, we don’t know what is going to happen.”
The strip mall where the shop is located has already been placed on sale with a price tag of six million dollars.
Anoffice complex is being built right next to the school and the owners ofan apartment building across the street from the school saidthey are going to put a coffee shop in the lobby and plan to double their rents.
