FAMU places dental school request on hold

As expected, FAMU’s detailed proposal for a College of Dental Medicine received a cold shoulder from the Florida Board of Governors Strategic Planning Committee last month. Now, FAMU is tabling its dental school request and, instead, seeking support for an academic partnership that will annually pipeline a dozen of its talented graduates into the University of Florida’s College of Dentistry.

Donald Palm, FAMU assistant vice-president of academic affairs, says that FAMU will push for a dental school in the future.

“The dream’s still alive,” he told the Tallahassee Democrat. “It’s just on hold.”

If approved and funded, the FAMU-UF dental education diversity partnership will add 12 FAMU graduates to UF’s first year-class of 80 dental students, taking the total to 92. UF College of Dentistry Teresa Dolan estimates that the program will cost several million dollars per year.

"One of the main goals is to enhance diversity," Dolan said. "By increasing our class size it allows us to participate in the pipeline, but also assign more students to community-based learning."

BOG members have said they are worried that there is not enough money available to start a new, expensive dental program.

“The Board of Governors is extremely fearful — extremely fearful — of approving any project that, in the long run, could come back and affect us financially because we just don't have the money,” BOG member Mori Hosseini told the Orlando Sentinel.

Even though Florida’s higher education budget has been shrinking since 2007, it did not stop the BOG from approving a new pharmacy school for the University of South Florida in 2008 and a new medical school for Florida Atlantic University in 2010.