WSU has a half-page, full-color, advertisement promoting its proposed medical school on page A6 of the Sunday, Nov. 16, 014, edition of the Seattle Times.
The ad features a photo of a smiling woman doctor examining a little girl with a stethoscope under the headline, “Washington needs more doctors.” It steers readers to a website, “medicine.wsu.edu.” If you go there, you’ll find a slick website whose homepage declares, “The need to create a medical school in Spokane is abundantly clear.”
UW and WSU are locked in PR and lobbying combat over whether medical training in Washington State should expanded through the existing UW Medical School and its programs, or by creating a new medical school in Spokane, run by WSU. Currently, UW Medical School trains doctors for five states.
I’m not taking sides in this dispute in this posting. I’m simply wondering who paid for this. Did Seattle Times donate the space? Did a WSU donor contribute funds for it? Or did WSU buy the ad with taxpayer or student tuition money? I have no particular reason for asking; I’m merely a curious bystander.
I have been told that WSU paid for this ad. Does this mean Universities are now free to lobhy the legislature?
I wonder if the funds used to pay for this were state taX MONERYS?
Another good read is in today’s Puget Sound Business Journal. Marie Annette Brown, a Nursing professor at the University of Washington pointed out that the UW Doctor of Nursing Practice program enrolls about 250 students. These graduates cost much less t train than physicians because they do not need to do residencies. They can however deliver primary care, including prescriptions and minor procedures.
Maybe the UW needs to ask for money to expand that program?