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Endowment to boost city med school
February 01, 2006

— http://www.elpasotimes.com

Darren Meritz
El Paso Times

The Cimarron Foundation on Monday announced an endowment for the
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso.

The gift precedes a multimillion-dollar capital campaign expected to be
launched this spring by the Health Sciences Center intended to raise money
for a four-year medical school through individual donations, foundations and
national corporations.

"We can't expect Tech and the state to do this themselves," said Woody Hunt,
a founder of the Cimarron Foundation, a Hunt family foundation. "We as a
community need to step up."

Texas Tech operates a third- and fourth-year medical school with residency
programs in El Paso. Using money provided by the Legislature and private
sources, officials expect to build a fully accredited institution that
offers the first and second years of a medical education.

"The endowment from the Cimarron Foundation does two things," said Dr. Jose
Manuel de la Rosa, regional dean of the Texas Tech University Health
Sciences Center in El Paso. "It makes a commitment from El Paso to the
medical school, and secondly, it sends a very important message to our
legislators."

Officials from both the Cimarron Foundation and Texas Tech said the message
is simple: El Paso is serious about making the four-year school a success.

Texas Tech is requesting that the Legislature appropriate $68 million this
session in start-up funds for construction and to hire faculty to establish
the medical school. School administrators hope to enroll the first class of
40 students by 2008.

"Our message to the state is we need your help again, but I think that
message to the state also needs to carry the community's commitment," Hunt
said. "We've got to make our own statement."

With the four-year medical school, Texas Tech will be able to explore
avenues of medicine and research that are unique to the border community,
Hunt said. Meanwhile, El Paso will play a more prominent role for Texas Tech
as the four-year medical school comes together, Hunt said.

"Tech's in an evolutionary process, and the next step is they'll have two
medical schools instead of one," Hunt said. "There are opportunities that
don't exist in Lubbock, and I think Tech recognizes that."

Texas Tech officials hope the Cimarron Foundation's gift is one of many that
will help finance the medical school. And the donation comes as the school
has faced some criticism for failing to have an accredited anesthesiology
residency program.

The anesthesiology program lost its accreditation because the school failed
to conduct enough research and residents were not able to study enough.

Though Hunt did not mention problems with the anesthesiology program, he
said the endowment will help the Health Sciences Center strike the right
balance of research, education and clinical services.

Rick Francis, chairman of the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents,
said at Monday's announcement that the donation will help the school improve
and add resources.

"We look at this medical school as changing the paradigm of health care in
El Paso," Francis said. "It is the highest priority in the system."

Darren Meritz may be reached at dmeritz@elpasotimes.com; 546-6127.

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