A Good Neighbor

The new Dorrance H. Hamilton educational facility at Thomas Jefferson Medical College is downtown Philadelphia's largest infusion of green space in 50 years and the campus' first new building in 15. Town and gown considerations were important in its design.

"Burt Hill was approached to design the new 135,000-sq.-ft. Dorrance H. Hamilton Building, an educational facility that would create an integrated classroom setting in order to foster a team environment among students. During initial discussions, the school strongly emphasized its need for campus identity. For years, the urban Philadelphia grounds had been scattered throughout several city blocks, which made it difficult to unite the campus. The lack of campus identity also made it hard to establish a relationship with the neighboring community. It was clear that the new space would need to be aesthetically pleasing, as well as functional."

Read more here:
http://www.peterli.com/cpm/resources/articles/archive.php?article_id=2228

Prescription for Change: Starting, Acquiring, or Merging a Medical School

This article from NACUBO's Business Officer by Sandra R. Sabo is "spot on" for planners who have to cope with massive changes involving medical school expansion, acquisition, and integration. It features case study information from a Florida State expansion, a Drexel University acquisition, and the merger of systems at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and Johns Hopkins Health System (JHHS).

Even limited cultural and organizational change creates some tension and anxiety within an educational institution. Those feelings intensify as the scale of change grows and more people become unnerved by adjustments to the status quo. In fact, big projects and massive shifts can wreak behavioral havoc. “Even people you think you know,” says John Carnaghi, senior vice president of finance and administration, Florida State University (FSU), Tallahassee, “may become overwhelmed by anxiety and emotion, and begin doing or saying things that seem out of character.”

Efforts on the part of a university to start, acquire, or incorporate into its operations something as significant as a medical school certainly qualify as disruptions of a dramatic degree. For insights into the challenges—and rewards—of such massive change, Business Officer talked to representatives of three institutions that have undertaken transformative initiatives related to their medical schools and discovered prescriptions for success.