A series of assessments of UNTMD from a leadership insider

Dear Readers:

I have tried to wrap up the UNTMD issue as the lack of credibility of the UNTMD financial plan was exposed.  I do want to move on to cover other issues. However, I have just learned the “old news” about the process of how the UNTMD business plan was developed from a longtime insider. The MD study group was set up as a farce as the decision had already been made prior to its establishment.

I am going to post a series of Dr. Scott Stoll’s communications to the UNT Board of Regents and UNTHSC community. These communications from a longtime insider like Dr. Stoll will provide us how a university administration really functions and the kind of leadership that UNTHSC currently has.

I commend UNTHSC president’s ambitious plan of “making Fort Worth a medical destination city as Rochester’s Mayo Clinic, Houston MD Anderson, and Baltimore’s John Hopkins” in his letter to friends of UNTHSC dated on September 25^th, 2009. The only flaw of the plan is that he is relying on the $ 25 million pledges to start a new MD school. This amount is only half of the amount that Paul Foster singly donated to the new medical school in El Paso. Fort Worth and Tarrant County have three times the population size of El Paso's population and thus can do better. The fundraising of $150 million should be the goal and is achievable, which is the minimum average cost to start a new medical school. Austin hospital system is investing $1.5 billion to establish a medical school and center. This drive of adding another medical school with a surreal low-cost on campus of UNTHSC has been divisive and has caused good faculty exodus such as Dr. Scott Stoll.

The current main goal of UNTHSC is to push for the establishment of another medical school. TCOM students's performance of the boards have suffered and are poorer than the previous years. 

Dr. Scott Stoll spent 20 years working at UNTHSC. He served as chairman of the department of osteopathic manipulative medicine, founded and directed Physical Medical Institute, and a UNT Health Board member. He achieved tenured professorship, which entails honor, privileges and other fringe benefits. The children of college tenured professors usually have their college tuitions paid by the universities that their parents work at. Despite job security of a tenured professor and the love of academia, Dr. Stoll stood up for his principle and took a stand against the oppressive maneuvers of the leadership, lack of transparency of the process, and the discriminatory nature of the UNTMD plan.

I never personally knew Dr. Stoll when I was a student at TCOM. I have to admit that I admire his courage for doing what is right. That should be a principal character of educators! Educators should take a stand against discrimination.

I will try in my small way to disseminate the information and the supports for TCOM and UNTHSC even though these may be "old news." However, I do not believe that they have never had a fair coverage and their voice/opinion heard.

Sincerely,

Tayson DeLengocky