No Meds Down by the Riverside Says LA Times

An earlier post noted efforts by UC-Riverside and UC-Merced to create med schools.  Today the LA Times editorializes against the former.

A UC Riverside medical school? Not now: Fiscal uncertainty makes this the wrong time to embark on the ambitious new project. (excerpt)

It certainly would be good for UC Riverside if it had a full medical school. Professional schools — especially medical and law schools — add luster to a college's reputation and can attract research money and elite professors. Whether it would be good for the state, or for the University of California as a whole, is another matter. Though we don't object to the concept of increasing the number of such graduate schools, this seems like the wrong time to embark on an expensive new project that will cost the state millions of dollars a year down the road.

…If UC has extra money, though, it should be spending it on serious educational deficits in its existing schools, especially considering the possibility that it might have to pass a big tuition hike if voters don't approve Gov. Jerry Brown's tax measure in November. The university system is on the brink of a real diminishment of its reputation, not for lack of new medical schools but for too few undergraduate courses and professors looking to move on. In addition, UC Riverside officials made it clear that the medical school would seek $15 million a year from the state after its start-up years… We appreciate that the university is planning to run the school without the budget-crushing cost of establishing and operating its own medical center, but this might not be something the state can afford…

Full editorial at

http://www.latimes.com/health/healthcare/la-ed-riverside-medical-school-20120719,0,6009791.story

But Riverside thinks it's absolutely necessary: