USD Medical Center

[Rabbitlivinginverm]

I know this is a SDSU board but something has come up that affect's SDSU becasue it affects my fiance and I.  I'm sure I'm not the only one.  

It seems the new Medical Center has come up about 4 million dollars short on cash.  For those of you who don't know they have tore down 1/2 of the old building with the idea of building the new 1/2, tearing down the old 2nd 1/2 and then building that.  The problem is that whoever did the budget for this project came up 4 million $$ short.  Why is this a problem for me is due to the way the are attempting to make up for this shortcoming.  The idea is to charge PT (my fiance is a 2nd year PT student) and OT students $500.oo more a semester and med students $1000.oo per semester--that's a lot of $$ for med students.  They are not charging anybody but these students.  Which I guess could make sense since they are the people using it.  On the other hand, school isn't cheap and paying for something she will never use isn't very fun either.  When they built the Al Nauharth building there was a general increase in fees that every student paid, even if they never set foot inside the building.  How does this makes sense?  To be fair, the SD Boards of Regents mandated this fee the the PT, OT, and med students.  It seems to demonstrate incompetence on USd's part to be this far off in the budget--you can't tell me the cost of steel and lumber has gone up that much.  And they can't blame this on only having 2 bids on this project.  

Anyway, I needed to get this off my chest and I know there are USD grads and students who read this.  Maybe someone has further insight into this?

[1stRowFANatic]

Re: USD Medical Center

Doesn't surprise me that this happened. USD has a history of entering into dubious capital improvement projects/plans. Two examples come from the Dakota Dome - first, the absolute inability to get anyone to see the need to set aside funds to replace the roof prior to it falling in and the scoreboard deal with Coca-Cola I discussed in a previous post. It is my impression that  USD values big press releases and announcements than to get solid plans in place that improve the product they are selling to their students. I'm biased, but I've been a student at both institutions, and my impressions were only solidified by my attendance at USD. Don't even get me started on the U's financial aid office.

How does this affect SDSU? USD has to go to the same Board of Regents as every other institution and when they screw up and require the Board to take action, it has a reciprocal effect on every other institution. This is not a good thing.

[jackmd]

Re: USD Medical Center

Typical for USD. When I attended med school the cost for tuition was above any other public school in the upper midwest and I garuntee you the Lee Medicine building is the worst facility in the upper midwest. Tacking on another $1000 a semester will definitely push tuition above and beyond any neighboring states.

What do you get for that extra money? Lesser facilities in a town with no teaching hospital necessitating 2-3 trips per week to Sioux Falls or Yankton during the first 2 years and clinical training in Sioux Falls, Yankton, or Rapid City for all of the 3rd and 4th year.

So, when they called me asking for a donation what do you think I said? I hope this gets worked out without charging additional money to student who will never benefit from it.

[water]

Re: USD Medical Center

Pompous MD: I don't get it. Every time the USD Medical School comes up on this site you go off on a tangent about how bad the place is, blah, blah, blah. Didn't you attend that school? Didn't you check it out first to see how crappy it was? Maybe if it is so crappy that's the reason you got in.

Neuarth Center was paid for with private donations as part of Campaign South Dakota - the largest private fund raising effort ever undertaken in the state. Raised 73 million (13 million over the goal and two years ahead of schedule).

As far as the cost of the medical school - USD pitched the project to the Regents, they approve it, the Office of the State Engineer then works with an independent architect who develops the cost estimate, USD raises the money. That is typical with most State-built buildings. USD did not develop the cost estimate.

[SDSUFAN]

Re: USD Medical Center

In South Dakota, there often is one choice for curriculm and whether its accounting or medicine, and you want a full accredited institution, there is usd and there is usd, that is your choice. Often that choice is horrible as our good Mayo Doctor found it.

[1stRowFANatic]

Re: USD Medical Center

SPORTSFAN,

Of that 73 million, how much is in hand and how much is pledged? I haven't heard any figures at all. Having done fundraising, it is easy to get people to pledge, if you don't have to commit. There are valid reasons for doing that, but you then have to be careful because those dollars don't show up in the same ratio as often is reported.

[jackmd]

Re: USD Medical Center

Pompous MD: I don't get it. Every time the USD Medical School comes up on this site you go off on a tangent about how bad the place is, blah, blah, blah. Didn't you attend that school? Didn't you check it out first to see how crappy it was? Maybe if it is so crappy that's the reason you got in.

Nice try. Didn't mean to make you angry just stating how I feel. I can see I touched a sore spot. Must have had some bad interactions with physicians as a youngster.

No one is interested in knowing why I attended the school of medicine at USD and not elsewhere. Lets just say things have worked out just fine and I am willing to give some credit to the faculty at USD, many of them having first attended SDSU. I think you'd be suprised to hear the opinions of many of those faculty with regard to the future of the school of medicine in Vermillion.

All that being said, I would be much more willing to support the advancement of facilities at the school of medicine and therefore USD, if more consideration was given to either moving professors to Vermillion or facilities to Sioux Falls. Its a little ridiculous to have to drive 60 miles 2 or 3 times a week to attend medical school classes in another city. Hence, the reason many medical students live in Sioux Falls and commute to Vermillion. In fact, if you didn't attend USD as an undergrad I would wager you are more likely to live outside of Vermillion during medical school training.

Way off on a non-Jackrabbit tangent here, for that I apologize.

[JackJD]

Re: USD Medical Center

When I was at USD for law school, I found that an SDSU letterjacket at Carey's Bar was a source for good conversation.

[goyotes]

Re: USD Medical Center

After enough time in Carey's you could have a good conversation with anyone, even someone wearing a SDSU jacket. Heck, you could even carry on a conversation with an Augie fan.

[OK_Jackrabbit]

Re: USD Medical Center

Hey JackMD, my brother also got his MD at USD. He and I have talked about it and he would concur with your assessment. The facilities were awful, and the logistics of the program were difficult. But, like you, he would say he got a really good medical education. He did his residency at Abbott-Northwestern in Minneapolis and now practices in Brookings as an internist.

Also, one of my wife's doctors at OU Medical Center here (a neuro-opthalmology specialist) said he has supervised USD residents and they were among the very best he has worked with.

So clearly, there is something good at USD Medical School (the faculty) even if the facilities were lousy. The whole thing should probably be relocated to Sioux Falls since students spend so much of their time there anyway.

[Crashola]

Re: USD Medical Center

Sorry for taking this thread on yet another tangent, but as a USD law grad, I can honestly say that the law school doesn't share many of the med school's problems. Given their relatively small budget and lack of competitive faculty salaries (a problem shared by all of South Dakota's higher education institutions) they do a pretty good job educating lawyers. The Law School itself is also a pretty nice facility. Given what I paid in tuition and what I got back, I'm more than satisfied with the institution. That said, I was born a Jackrabbit, raised a Jackrabbit, and SDSU is my alma mater. Any allegiance I have to USD stops once I'm outside the doors of the law school.

[Jack]

Re: USD Medical Center

Crashola maybe you could start a new program at SDSU like the Steer for State program. You could call it Sue for State. All your winnings would go to the Jackrabbit Club. What do you think?

[SoDak]

Re: USD Medical Center

Boy, you can't swing a dead cat on this board without hitting a doctor or a lawyer.

[JackJD]

Re: USD Medical Center

SoDak: Was that an attempt at humor?

[1stRowFANatic]

Re: USD Medical Center

SoDak: Leave the dead cats out of this. If you are swinging any thing it should be a dead dog, of the Augie Daugie breed.