UMSL and KCUMB make it official. Seated (from left) are H. Danny Weaver and Tom George. Standing (from left) are Joe Southerland, Curt Coonrod, Ron Yasbin, Heidi Terry, Alan Byrd, Glen Cope and Teresa Thiel.
Students set on a career in medicine now have a new option that promises to save them time and money.
The University of Missouri–St. Louis has partnered with the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences in Missouri to develop a program that allows UMSL students to earn a bachelor’s degree and a doctor of osteopathic medicine degree in just seven years instead of eight. The agreement was signed at a luncheon ceremony Oct. 26. Initial selections for the program begin in spring 2013. H. Danny Weaver, president and chief executive officer at KCUMB and Tom George, chancellor of UMSL.
Others on hand were Joe Southerland, mentor for College of Arts & Sciences at UMSL; Curt Coonrod, vice provost for student affairs and dean of students at UMSL; Ron Yasbin, dean of College of Arts & Sciences at UMSL; Heidi Terry, vice president for enrollment management and registrar for KCUMB; Alan Byrd, director of admissions at UMSL; Glen Cope, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at UMSL; and Teresa Thiel, associate dean of College for Arts & Sciences at UMSL.
“This gives our students an opportunity to enter into a degree program they normally would not have access to here,” said UMSL Chancellor Tom George. “This is a unique partnership for UMSL and we’re very excited to be able to offer this to our students.”
Students will apply for the program during their freshman year at UMSL. They will attend UMSL for three years before transferring to KCUMB for four more years of medical school.
H. Danny Weaver, president and chief executive officer at KCUMB, said the agreement benefits both St. Louis and Kansas City.
“The majority of students will come back to practice in those communities,” he said.
Contact Joe Southerland in the College of Arts & Sciences at UMSL at 314-516-6260 or southerlandj@umsl.edu for more information.
