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On Friday, Dec. 7, the University of Tennessee (UT) College of Pharmacy began what one alumnus called “another chapter in the continuation of a dream.”

More than 250 well-wishers crowded into the heated tent on a chilly Pearl Harbor Day morning as UT president John Petersen and College of Pharmacy dean Dick Gourley led the groundbreaking for a new pharmacy building on the Memphis campus.

The six-story, 191,000-square-foot building is one of the new facilities under construction on the grounds of the UT-Baptist Research Park, where Baptist Memorial Hospital once stood. Slated for completion in fall 2009, the new building will consolidate pharmacy faculty and staff who are currently housed in six different buildings on the Memphis campus.

The new facility will include large and small lecture halls, class/conference rooms equipped for distance learning, research laboratories with support space, a computer laboratory, plus office and student space.

“The UT Health Science Center College of Pharmacy is the first and most prestigious pharmacy school in Tennessee,” Dr. Hershel P. Wall, interim chancellor, told the crowd. “Through its commitment to excellence, innovation and diversity, the college has made its mark on the state and on the nation.”

Petersen said he was happy to participate in another chapter in the College of Pharmacy’s impressive history.

“This groundbreaking marks yet another significant stride in the expansion of the Health Science Center,” he said. “It’s another representation of how the state is our campus.”

The UT pharmacy program is not just located in Memphis and Knoxville, but is truly statewide, Peter son pointed out.

“Students enrolled at the College of Pharmacy come from 73 out of the 95 counties in Tennessee,” he pointed out. “In addition to enrolling and training pharmacists in Memphis and Knoxville, the UT College of Pharmacy is opening satellite sites in Nashville, Kingsport, Chattanooga and Jackson.”

Over the next year, the program will be overseeing pharmacy rotations in a total of 65 counties.

“Our College of Pharmacy enables UT to add value to the state with all three of our deliverables: education, healthcare and economic impact,” Peterson observed. “We are educating pharmacists for the workforce. UT pharmacists enable healthcare delivery.” In 2005, the economic impact of the college was assessed at $51.6 million. That impact is expected to be $90 million in 2009, when the College of Pharmacy is at full enrollment of 800 students, Peterson told the crowd.

The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by pharmacy professionals from across the state, students, alumni, faculty, and a number of state and local elected officials, including Rep. Steve Cohen, Sens. J. Randy McNally and Reginald Tate, and Memphis City Council representative Carol Chumney. Among the many College of Pharmacy supporters were former UTHSC chancellor Bill Rice and members of the Feurt family, long-time donors to the college. One of the current campus buildings where pharmacy activities are held is named for Seldon D. Feurt, PhD, former dean of the College of Pharmacy.

More than 30 years ago, pharmacy administrators first discussed the need for a new building to consolidate all the human and technology resources of the college. Petersen noted the groundbreaking represented “a promise made...and a promise kept.”



Caption: Gathered around a rendering of the UT Health Science Center College of Pharmacy building to be erected on the UT-Baptist Research Park site are: seated, Joella Feurt Haskins, standing (l-r) Dean Dick Gourley, Chick Hill, Andi Feurt Hill, Leonard Compton (Chair of Seldon D. Feurt Committee).




January 2008

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