Published: September 13, 2008 11:31 pm            

OSU medical move OK’d

• Regents approve change in College of Osteopathic Medicine’s training program

For Oklahoma State University, there was one clear highlight of Friday’s meeting of the Board of Regents for the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges.

During the meeting in the Oklahoma Room of the Student Union, the board unanimously approved authorizing OSU President Burns Hargis to finalize an agreement with the Saint Francis Health System for the relocation of some of the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine’s training program.

As of July 1, SFHS hospitals will be the teaching sites for most OSU interns, residents and fellows. The school has a one-year agreement with Ardent Health Systems that expires June 30.

Following the meeting, Hargis said it is important for this state to have a osteopathic residency training program.

“Residents tend to practice where they do their residency,” he said. “Oklahoma is very short on physicians per capita. We’re one of the lowest in the United States. It’s critical that the OSU medical school continue to produce physicians because most of them are going to practice here in Oklahoma. A number of them also serve the rural areas, underserved populations.”

The Regents presented a resolution expressing appreciation to SFHS “for their commitment to the preservation of the osteopathic physician training program and the betterment of health care for all Oklahoma.”

Board Vice Chairman Calvin Anthony said he wanted to echo those sentiments and thank them after they “stepped up to the plate in helping us solve a difficult issue with our residents.”

Regent Lou Watkins thanked Anthony.

“I look back on the work I know — and I don’t even know all the work that has gone into it — but you personally have volunteered not hours, not days, but weeks of your time in resolving this that I know of,” she said. “I don’t know of all the time you spent on it, but I just think we need to say a special appreciation to you on behalf of your work to help resolve this issue.”

That was followed by applause throughout the room.

During OSU’s portion of the meeting, there was also plenty of other business.

Hargis said the university remembers seniors Christoper K. Bellmer of Katy, Texas, Kelli Marie Mellon of Lawson, Mo., and Christian D. Wright of Putnam City, who died in a car wreck Aug. 31.

Also in the wreck was Stephen Sellers, an Edmond sophomore who is recovering at a hospital in Wichita.

“He’s still got a tough go, but he’s certainly going to survive and he needs a lot of help,” Hargis said. “We’re looking at ways we can do that.”

He added the school’s “hearts and prayers go out to those families.”

The board approved memorial resolutions for Dr. Paul Dean Harper, former head of the speech communication department, Christine “Chris” Tinker, a dietitian who worked at OSU 43 years, and Richard M. Williams, who directed married student housing.

Provost Marlene Strathe covered personnel actions and approval of program modifications, new degrees and an agreement for the Center for Veterinary Health Sciences to enter into a 2+2 program agreement with the University of Arizona College of Agriculture.

Vice President David Bosserman covered budgetary actions, business and financial matters and purchase requests.

That included the leasing of a 190-space parking lot at the southeast corner of Knoblock Street and Mathews Street from Cowboy Athletics, LLC, for $35,000 annually.

        

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