Rowan, Cooper to run new medical school in Camden

By Matt Katz

Inquirer Staff Writer

A newly established four-year medical school in downtown Camden, jointly run by Rowan University and Cooper University Hospital, will expand both the South Jersey medical community and Camden's educational hub, officials said yesterday.

Gov. Corzine signed an executive order Thursday night to create Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, the state's third medical school. The four-year school - to be housed in a $100 million, 160,000-square-foot building to be built at Broadway and Benson Street, near the hospital - will admit its first class of 100 medical students in 2012.

"New Jerseyans need outstanding physicians to care for all of us now and for generations to come," Corzine said in a statement.

"Not only will this plan ensure the best education for these new doctors and keep them in our state, it meshes perfectly with the 'eds and meds' economic-development strategy in Camden, and is part of a long-term vision for revitalizing the city."

"Eds and meds," meaning educational institutions and hospitals, has been the key to the state's strategy for assisting Camden, the poorest municipality in New Jersey. Rowan, based in Glassboro, is in the process of acquiring another downtown Camden building to serve 1,500 undergraduates. Campuses of Camden County College and Rutgers-Camden also have recently expanded in the city.

Though the new medical school will not add to Camden's tax coffers, officials believe it will attract taxable businesses to serve the school, and will make students and doctors feel safer walking near the hospital.

"There will be additional bodies in the city, additional economic development. It reinforces Camden's role as a health-care center and is even more of a reason for people in the suburbs to come to Camden," said Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. (D., Camden), who lives nearby.

The deal is a shift from long-held plans to expand the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey campus in Camden.

UMDNJ has run a two-year program at its Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Camden since 1981, with Cooper doctors teaching third- and fourth-year students.

Because Rowan is on better financial footing to borrow money for the school-construction project, officials said, UMDNJ's presence in the city would be phased out by 2013. As part of the deal, UMDNJ will sell some of its assets to Rowan.

The Legislature has 60 days to review the governor's plans. In a statement released yesterday, UMDNJ said it supported the governor's decision.

"It just seemed like a natural when Cooper came to us. . . . You don't get those opportunities very often," said Donald J. Farish, Rowan's president, adding that few universities offer both bachelor's and medical degrees.

"This is going to be very significant for the city of Camden, because there are going to be a whole slew of new jobs created," Farish said.

He did not say whether a specific percentage of jobs would be carved out for city residents, but emphasized that "we don't want to be simply in Camden. We want to be of Camden. We're here because we believe in the city."

Rowan has never run a medical school, but the 300 Cooper doctors who now teach Robert Wood Johnson students would be on the faculty of the new medical school. A dean and other faculty would be recruited as the new school applied for accreditation, officials said.

Cooper Medical School of Rowan University will receive the same state funding, about $20 million annually, that Robert Wood Johnson gets, Farish said. It also will receive $9 million that was allocated for a future UMDNJ medical school in the 2002 Camden recovery law.

The deal allows Cooper, which recently opened a $220 million patient pavilion, to further expand its operations.

Officials there have stated their desire to take on the major Philadelphia teaching hospitals, keeping South Jersey doctors and patients from having to cross the Delaware River.

According to Cooper, 30,000 South Jersey residents get specialty medical care in Pennsylvania hospitals each year.

New Jersey ranks behind most states in medical-school graduates per capita, Cooper officials said. A new state school would create more New Jersey physicians and would give more state residents the opportunity to become doctors.

"This partnership unites two dynamic institutions that are financially strong and culturally and geographically aligned," George E. Norcross III, chairman of the board of Cooper, said in a statement.

U.S. Rep. Robert E. Andrews (D., Camden) applauded the decision and thanked Norcross.

The new medical school will contribute toward Camden's revitalization, generating construction jobs and bringing a new wave of professionals and students into the city, Andrews' office said in a statement.

Cooper says it wants to use its might to improve the neighborhood. It has funded refurbished parks and streetscaping, and promoted residential developments that it hopes its employees will purchase.

A major redevelopment plan in the Lanning Square neighborhood, approved by the city last year, called for businesses along Broadway to be taken by eminent domain to make way for a new UMDNJ medical school.

Rowan will now replace UMDNJ as the driving force in those plans, which are being challenged in court. Five lawsuits were recently consolidated into one.

Olga Pomar, an attorney for residents who believe the redevelopment plan gives politicians broad powers to seize hundreds of homes over 25 years, said the new arrangement would be a concern only if Rowan decided it needed more space to expand than originally planned.

"I am very curious myself [to know] if this affects the redevelopment plan," Pomar said, adding that she hoped for "open discussion and resident input."

Contact staff writer Matt Katz at 856-779-3919 or mkatz@phillynews.com.