LEXINGTON, KY - Midway College announced plans this week to launch Kentucky's first Appalachian-based school of pharmacy, and the third school of its kind statewide, in Paintsville in the fall semester of 2011.
The school, which will initially be housed at the Mayo campus of the Big Sandy Community and Technical College, is expected eventually to bring 100 jobs to Paintsville and accommodate 320 students, said Midway College President William B. Drake, Jr., providing a welcome economic boost to the area. When economic multipliers are considered, Drake said, the overall economic impact from the establishment of the new school is expected to reach roughly $30 million annually.
Midway and its board of trustees studied the project for four years before deciding to move forward with it in November, Drake said.
"We are a college that has been built around the health sciences," Drake said. "This move to the doctoral level for a pharmacy program is a natural extension of that."
According to Drake, Midway selected Paintsville as the location for its new school of pharmacy as a result of what he called "the extraordinary community support that has made this possible," including an investment of financial resources and multiple land parcels currently being considered as possible donations for the school's eventual permanent site. In terms of the combination of private resources and public cooperation involved in this initiative, Drake said the effort has been "unparalleled, in my experience."
The new pharmacy school also shows the investment that private colleges like Midway are making in addressing some of the state's most pressing needs in the wake of the nation's struggling economic situation, including the growing shortage of pharmacists, nurses and teachers, Drake said.
"The private colleges are responding dynamically today," Drake said. " Many of us are stepping forward in times like these and saying, 'We are not backing down. We are expanding.'"
Midway hired the school's founding dean, Lanny Foss, in December and will be submitting its documentation for accreditation this month, Drake said. And through the support of the legislature and the use of coal severance tax funds, the college expects to offer scholarships that would make education available at rates comparable to the University of Kentucky's pharmacy college for Kentucky students who commit to stay and work in Appalachia.
Drake said he expects such programs to benefit the availability of health care services in the area in the long-term, because professionals such as doctors and pharmacists often stay throughout their careers once they have established their practices in a community.
With roughly five applicants for every available seat in the average pharmacy class today, Drake said Midway College will be working hard to ensure that Appalachian students have the opportunity to learn and grow as part of the new school.
"We are being very intentional today about looking first at students who are residents of Appalachian counties to be members of our first class and our subsequent classes," Drake said.
Midway is currently looking into the development of articulation agreements with private colleges throughout the state, designed to make it easier to transfer credits and coursework between educational institutions, and expects to be working with Kentucky's community colleges on similar initiatives.
In addition to offering a more traditional curriculum in pharmaceutical sciences, Midway also plans to incorporate an educational component that will deal with natural remedies at the new pharmacy school, Drake said. Such an approach is novel in pharmaceutical education today, according to Drake, but it will allow the school's students to supplement their education with training in what he sees as an emergent and growing field of holistic care, and one that he expects will resonate with the Appalachian community.
"This is going to be a critical beacon in eastern Kentucky," Drake said.
Midway College currently employs 62 full-time faculty members, serving an enrollment of roughly 1,800 students with courses at 14 locations throughout Kentucky and online. The college offers degree programs in a variety of majors, including business, health care administration, nursing and teacher education.