Nashville’s Lipscomb University broke ground (today/yesterday) on what school officials are calling the first pharmacy college in Middle Tennessee. Belmont University also has a pharmacy school in the works set to open at the same time in fall 2008. The building spree has been spurred on by a growing shortage in the field.
It wasn’t so much a ground breaking as the beginning of a 10-million dollar renovation and addition to the Burton Building which sits at the center of the Lipscomb campus.
(Sound of sledge hammers)
University president Randy Lowry and the future pharmacy school officials swung golden sledgehammers at a red bull’s-eye painted on the drywall.
Lowry, who joined Lipscomb in late 2005, has encouraged faculty members to come up with innovative ways to expand the school, and a pharmacy program was just one of those ideas.
“This is an institution that is well poised for this opportunity that wasn’t envisioned 13 months ago but today will take a very physical form.”
The school’s leadership team was announced at the event. Most have left roles at other pharmacy schools around the country, identifying what is a ripple effect of the pharmacist shortage: a shortage of pharmacy faculty.
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