The Board of Trustees of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey has approved the creation of the University's eighth school--the UMDNJ-School of Public Health.
The new school, which will be formally established over three years, will offer master's and doctoral degree programs for health care professionals from a wide range of disciplines. In addition to collaborating with UMDNJ's seven other schools, the new school will offer joint degrees with Rutgers University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Dr. Stanley S. Bergen, Jr., UMDNJ president, said, "New Jersey has many of the factors that can have an impact on public health, factors such as urban demography, a high population density, contaminated industrial sites and a rapidly changing health care delivery system, but it lacks a major statewide academic presence in public health capable of influencing the discussions on health policy and funding.
"We have also experienced a strong consensus in recent years both in New Jersey and nationwide that our health care system must become more focused on public health issues, health promotion and disease prevention.
"Because public health has long been an integral part of the University's mission, as evidenced by our nationally acclaimed program in public health at our Piscataway campus, it is a logical move to establish a School of Public Health that will provide a focus for public health research and education for the state and make high quality graduate education in public health widely available to New Jerseyans."
The New Jersey Graduate Program in Public Health, established 15 years ago by UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers' Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, has been the only program in the state offering degree programs in public health. The program has successfully attracted students and educates them for leadership roles in public health disciplines. It is located in the center of the state, however, which has limited its accessibility by students from northern and southern New Jersey.
The UMDNJ-School of Public Health initially will comprise two campus-based programs, the New Jersey Graduate Program in Public Health in Piscataway/New Brunswick and a multi-institutional graduate program of public health in Newark. A third program is planned for the Stratford/Camden campus within a few years.
Each program will have a clearly defined mission and will be organized along disciplinary lines that maximize the contributions of programs that already have attained a reputation for excellence.
For example, the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health will be on the Piscataway campus to draw on the resources of the large corps of faculty experts at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute.
The Division of Urban Public Health and Infectious Diseases will be located on the Newark campus and will focus on urban health issues and infectious diseases. The faculty will include medical and scientific experts from the International Center for Public Health located in University Heights Science Park; the internationally prestigious Public Health Research Institute which will move from New York City to the new center; the New Jersey Medical School National Tuberculosis Center at UMDNJ, and the Pediatric AIDS program and Laboratory for Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens, both at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School.
The new multi-institutional graduate program in public health on the Newark campus, which was approved by the UMDNJ Board of Trustees at its May meeting, will begin enrolling students in the fall of 1999.
"Initiatives like University Heights Science Park, the International Center for Public Health, the Violence Institute of New Jersey at UMDNJ, and other collaborative programs among the three academic partners--UMDNJ, Rutgers and NJIT--have created an environment in which dramatic and far-reaching changes in public health education and practice can occur," Dr. Bergen said. "It is the right time to create this School of Public Health, and its existence will have profound positive impact on New Jersey's future."
The dean of the UMDNJ-School of Public Health will be selected from a nationwide search. The faculty will comprise current faculty from UMDNJ's schools, Rutgers and NJIT.
The school's initial budget will be derived principally from UMDNJ revenue sources, with additional revenue for operating funds provided proportionately by Rutgers and NJIT.
In addition to the UMDNJ-School of Public Health, UMDNJ comprises New Jersey's three medical schools, one dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of nursing and a school of health related professions on campuses in Newark, Piscataway/New Brunswick, Camden, Stratford and Scotch Plains. UMDNJ also operates University Hospital in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare. It is affiliated with more than 200 health care and educational institutions throughout the state.