Cooper and Rowan U. to launch new Camden medical school
A new four-year medical school in downtown Camden, a partnership between Rowan University and Cooper University Hospital, will boost both South Jersey's medical community and the expanding educational center in Camden, officials said yesterday.
Gov. Corzine signed an order last night that reshuffles the state's medical establishment so the newly named Cooper Medical School of Rowan University will enroll its first class of 100 medical students in 2012.
Officials involved confirmed the plans but would not speak publicly until the governor makes a formal announcement, which is expected later today.
The deal is a shift from long-held plans to expand the state University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
UMDNJ has run a two-year program for its Robert Wood Johnson Medical School students in Camden since 1983, with Cooper doctors teaching medical students in their third and fourth years.
Glassboro-based Rowan University, which has never run a medical school, has a superior bond rating to UMDNJ and is better able to borrow money to build the new Camden facility, officials said. UMDNJ's presence in the city will be phased out by 2013.
Through its alliance with Rowan, Cooper - which just opened a $220 million patient-care pavilion - will expand its growing medical empire. Hospital officials have stated their desire to take on the major Philadelphia teaching hospitals by keeping both South Jersey doctors and patients from going across the bridges.
The hospital also wants to use its might to improve the neighborhood where it is located. It has funded refurbished parks and streetscaping, and promoted new residential developments that it hopes its employees will purchase.
A major redevelopment plan in the Lanning Square neighborhood, approved by the city last year, calls for businesses along Broadway to be taken by eminent domain to make way for a new UMDNJ medical school. Rowan could now replace UMDNJ in those plans, which are currently being challenged in court.
Rowan University is seeking to purchase another downtown building, around the corner from the new medical school, via eminent domain. It plans to use the building to expand its undergraduate presence in the city by 1,500 students.
Camden County College and Rutgers-Camden have also grown downtown in recent years, thanks in part to funding from the 2002 Camden recovery act, which put the city under state control and funneled money to various projects.
Cooper and Rowan could be eligible for $9 million in money intended for a UMDNJ medical school.
U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D., Camden) today applauded the Cooper-Rowan project and thanked the state's elected officials and George Norcross III, chairman of Cooper University Hospital and a long-standing unelected political leader in South Jersey.
In a statement released today, Andrews said that the new medical school would "serve as a key component toward Camden's revitalization, generating an immediate demand for construction jobs as well as bringing a new wave of professionals and students into the city to work and reinvest in the community."