Academics

TCU announces new committees for developing medical school

Published Nov 16, 2015

UNTHSC President Dr. Michael Willams and TCU Chancellor Victor Boschini collaborate to make two committees for the developing medical school.

Provost Nowell Donovan recently announced two new committees will be created to help with the development of the TCU and University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) medical school.

In the announcement, Donovan said the original Steering Committee has now established the Management Committee and the Search Committee.

Chancellor Victor Boschini said the arrangement of the two committees was a collaboration between the two schools and that the committee members were chosen because of their unique perspectives.

“The people from TCU were chosen because of their interest in the area and also their content knowledge of the area,” Boschini said.

The Management Committee will be in charge of forming smaller committees to deal with affairs such as curriculum development, admissions and financial matters.

Donovan and Thomas Yorio, the UNTHSC provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, will be chairing the Management Committee.

The Search Committee is charged with finding the new medical school’s inaugural dean.

Susan Weeks, the dean of the Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and Myron Johnson, the dean of the UNT System College of Pharmacy, are the chairs of the Search Committee.

Both Weeks and Johnson said they are excited to work with each other in the development of the medical school and achieving the goals of their specific committee.

“I look forward to working with my colleagues from TCU and UNTHSC as we recruit an innovative leader for this important initiative,” Weeks said.

Jeff Carlton, the director of media relations at UNTHSC, said the committees will consist of TCU and UNTHSC academic and administrative leaders. This will include the provosts, deans, department chairs and professors from both schools.

With the creation of the two new committees, the medical school remains on track to host its first students in the fall of 2018.

Faculty Senate Chair Stathis Michaelides announced that they are trying to appoint a dean by the end of March and that the school is on track with the accreditation applications.