WMU Medical School Idea has Rich Friend

KALAMAZOO --  Even though these are tough times for everyone, schools included, Western Michigan University's Board of Trustees yesterday encouraged University President Dr. John Dunn to move forward with efforts to establish a medical school. 

WMU Chair Ken Miller says they have more reasons than just growing the university's reputation and training a generation of physicians, though. They have received a $1.8-million anonymous grant to advance the idea.

 Dunn says it should be no longer than a year from now in moving forward that they may be able to set a target date for admitting the first class.  He also says they won't be counting on funding from other areas of the university, depending instead on other sources of revenue including a strong philanthropy base.