UTEP School of Pharmacy
the news is huge … and the founding dean of utep’s soon-to-be four- year pharmacy school tells abc- seven the impact of today’s news will be widespread. the u-t board of regents announced today in austin, it will allow the creation of the pharmacy school and four year doctoral program. good evening and thank you for joing us on abc- seven at six tonight. i’m estela casas. and i’m rick cabrera. today’s approval is good for utep … and the el paso community as a whole. it means better jobs and better salaries, likely staying in our area. reporter evan folan is live in our studio… … with the top story on abc-seven at six tonight. like you said, it’s a big day for utep and the borderland! and founding dean jose rivera tells me they are already in the process of hiring faculty and staff’s. “we just need to take it to the next level and this is it. this is our opportunity to take it to the next step and take the pharmacy practices in el paso to the highest level that we can” th plan is for school of pharmacy to make utep a better university and el paso a healthier city. “the one big missing piec was having enough pharmacists in el paso.” el pas only has 56 pharmacist per 100- thousand people – about half the national average. the current co-op program with u-t austin only graduated 10 utep pharmacists a year – but this new program will mean a big boost. “we are planning to start with 35 but we will probably go up to the maximum of 60 per class.” students in the co-op program had to pay u-t’s pricier tuition while in austin. one current students says – future students will have a leg up without that expense. “it is an immens advantage especially financially because we are students and we are always worried about tuition and how we are going to cover our books” stand up:”u austing/utep cooperative program will slowly be phased out as current students finish the program and the new pharmacy school will have all of its classes on campus – primarily here at the campbell building.” “the biggest benefit is the change in dynamic for the program.” which will be community based care “which is we are going t focus on the culture here in the borderland which will allow us to cater to our patients on a whole other level.” students will need to become proficient in spanish by the time they graduate. in january the school will apply for its acreditation and if approved the first class will begin in the fall of 2017. the abc-seven i-team is working for you tonight, because
