Charles Drew University of Medicine and
Science recently opened the doors of its new $43-million building to
house the inaugural nursing class, but the university's interim
president cautioned that the long-struggling institution is already
in the brink of losing the facility.
Dr. Keith Norris revealed in an
interview with The Times, that when September comes, the university
will have no choice, but to begin to use a reserve fund to make loan
payments. According to Norris, within six months the school's
resource could run dry and will have no means to pay for the
120-student nursing school building without any help from a
government agency, charity, foundation, or some other organization.
Norris added that losing the facility
could put the whole university at risk. The university used its
remaining assets as a collateral for the loan. This means that if
Drew fails to pay the loan, financial institutions could be in a
position to appropriate the university.
Based in Willowbrook,
south of Watts, Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science
University educates health professionals such as medical students,
public health experts, X-ray technicians, and scientists.
The university was closely tied to
neighboring Martin Luther King, Jr./Drew Medical Center for years. It
is a County-operated hospital where Drew's resident doctors were
trained. After the hospital continuously put its patients in danger of
injury and death, it closed its emergency rooms and inpatient units
in 2007.
By the time mentioned, the hospital's
struggles had already dragged Drew University on tenuous ground. The
county ends its relationship with Drew, cutting the university off
from the hospital in 2006.
Enrollment immediately plummeted from
700 to 350. Drew was losing about $1 million a month by 2008,
according to Norris. The school became profitable once again only six
months ago. And it was only achieved after the university laid off 70
to 400 employees, terminated a lot of contract workers, and initiated
pay cuts.
After a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the
new red-and-white two-story nursing building, Bart Williams, chairman
of Drew's board of trustees, said, "It's no secret. The
university has had big financial concerns for years. It is very
tight, and we took on a big obligation."
The university
officials discussed about erecting a nursing school at Drew for many
years. Officials still went ahead with the plan even they knew in
2006 that it would take a financial hit from the loss of its
residency programs.
Norris said,"There was hope that even
with reduced revenue, there would be other ways to pay for it."
The university's financial woes entered
at the institution's supposedly glory days. Drew was established in
the South Los Angeles area in1965. The opening of a nursing school is
the fulfillment of the institutions longtime goal of educating
healthcare professionals to serve in areas needing medical care.
The dream fulfilled is a 62,000-square-foot building that houses the
Mervyn M. Dymally School of Nursing.
The academic area is
focused at a nursing station implemented with screens monitoring beds
of fake patients. Extending from it are a birthing room,
intensive-care units for adults and babies, an operating room, and
three patient wards filled with four beds each that double as
classrooms.
Each bed is geared with a mannequin patient
ranging from pediatric to geriatric. Some are connected to heart
monitors; others have breathing tubes in their mouths.
Eventually,
the mannequins will be set up to breathe and can even be set up to
talk. One mannequin is ready to simulate giving birth.
Gloria
McNeal, the incoming dean, said the set-up will let a group of
nursing students to practice manning a ward on their own. Instructors
can test a students reaction by pushing buttons on computers to
trigger a mannequin patient's heart attack.
Giving the
mannequin patient the wrong medication, its monitors will show the
patient's decline and possible death.
"Here," McNeal
said, "you get to make mistakes and no one is harmed."
Drew's
nursing school students will get master's of science degrees in
nursing. It is higher level than a regular associate's or bachelor's
nursing degree. This will put students on track to become clinical
nurse leaders, managers, or public health experts. Only students with
a bachelor's degree can enroll.
McNeal said, the inaugural class begins
Aug. 23 with about 40 students, and in the course of time 120 students will be
enrolled.
Susan Kelly, its previous president,
ended a chaotic three-year term in 2009, managed unstable finances
and due to her top-down management style, she earned disapproval from
many professors.
The campus trouble was observed during a
visit by the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges, an accrediting
body, shortly before Kelly left. This placed Drew on a two-year
probation, said Norris.
According to Norris, the immediate
problem is learning a way to restructure debt payments.
Norris said that the problem is not the loan itself, which Drew can
actually afford to pay. But since Drew's credit-worthiness is low,
the school must make additional payments to financial institutions
that are representing as insurers for the bonds sold by the state to
raise money for construction.
Out of every $10 Drew pays, $1 goes to
pay back California for the loan used to erect the facility, and $9
goes to the financial institutions that insure the state in case Drew
fails to pay the loan.
The university is searching for donors
or a partner who can help renegotiate the debt payment plan,
according to Norris. He said that one possible source of funds is
the naming opportunity for the new nursing building.
Norris
showed hope for the future and excitement at opening a nursing
school, despite shaky finances.
Drew needs to address this
clear and present danger they are facing. The university is already at the crux of its success, if the it fails to do deliver, all its
dreams and aspirations would simply go down the drain.