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Beginning in the fall of 2012, Manchester College hopes to open the first doctoral program for pharmacology in northeast Indiana.
With a unanimous vote by the Wabash County school’s board of trustees Saturday, Manchester College took its first steps toward launching both a satellite campus and a doctoral program in Fort Wayne.
Over the past few months, an exploratory committee talked to more than 100 people, including community leaders, educators, economic development representatives and doctors of pharmacy to look at what it would take to start such a school and whether there was support for that type of program in the community.
That committee presented its findings to the school’s board, which gave it unequivocal support.
By the time board members had attended a series of meetings on the proposal and looked at the information, they came to Saturday’s board meeting with a good understanding of the program, said Dave McFadden, executive vice president of Manchester College.
“They were very enthusiastic by the time they came in the front door,” he said.
Questions focused on logistics and whether it would fit with the college’s mission, McFadden said.
“Graduate education for pharmacists is a natural fit with Manchester College,” Manchester President Jo Young Switzer said.
The average starting salary for pharmacists exceeds $100,000, and demand in the highly competitive profession is expected to grow more than 20 percent in the coming decade, Switzer said. The college’s research indicates many pharmacy graduates – who come from throughout the nation – remain in the communities where they study.
Manchester has a strong reputation in the sciences, particularly for preparing students for medical and graduate school. The college also emphasizes service learning. And according to the school, Fort Wayne is a natural fit for the new venture.
In addition to numerous medical facilities and opportunities for pharmacy practicum experiences, Fort Wayne offers many amenities attractive to the school’s 250 students, 40 faculty and staff members and their families, the college said.
Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry said in a written statement he welcomes the program to the city.
“The decision by Manchester College to start a PharmD program in Fort Wayne is a wonderful investment of financial and intellectual capital in our city,” Henry said. “As the health care sector continues to grow in Fort Wayne and northeast Indiana, Manchester College’s expansion of professional programs is going to be key in creating the highly skilled, highly educated workforce employers demand.”
Switzer said the program aligns nicely with other economic initiatives in northeast Indiana and will help the region to achieve its economic development goals.
The college has not finalized its plans for a Fort Wayne site for the new school, which will require at least 35,000 square feet for classrooms, offices and laboratories. The pharmacy school will be a part of Manchester College and governed by the college’s board of trustees.
But the search for a founding dean and building of a leadership team will begin immediately. That team will begin preparing the school’s application for accreditation, the school said.
The school would employ about 30 to 35 faculty members on the Fort Wayne campus as well as 10 to 15 staff members.
A doctoral program in pharmacology would be a four-year program, with a requirement of two years of pre-pharmacy course work during undergraduate school, which will be added into the coursework at the college. Manchester students will compete with pre-pharmacy students from other colleges and universities, the college said.
Two other doctorate pharmacology programs exist in Indiana – at Purdue University and at Butler University.
