Officials to hear pharmacy school plans

A Wichita pharmacist will present the University of Kansas' plans to build a local pharmacy school to city and county leaders this week.

BY KAREN SHIDELER

The Wichita Eagle

The University of Kansas wants to open a pharmacy school in Wichita -- perhaps as early as the fall of 2008, according to a Wichita pharmacist -- to help meet an increasing demand for pharmacists, especially in south-central and western Kansas.

Jeanine Brizendine, past president of the Wichita Academy of Pharmacists, will update the Wichita City Council and the Sedgwick County Commission on KU's plans during their meetings Tuesday and Wednesday.

"There continues to be a serious shortage of pharmacists" in Kansas and nationally, she said. KU's School of Pharmacy in Lawrence gets four to five applicants for each student slot it has.

The Lawrence campus admits 105 students each year; a Wichita campus would start with 20 students.

Pharmacists hope that a Wichita campus would have an effect similar to the KU School of Medicine's Wichita campus -- many of its graduates stay in the area to practice, Brizendine said.

She said she won't be seeking any formal show of support from the two governing bodies this week. Her only intent is to update them on plans for the school, which were announced in July, and to tie the plans to the community's Visioneering goals and efforts to create and keep high-paying jobs in Wichita.

The biggest holdup for opening a pharmacy school is money: It would require about $4 million to add on space to the medical school. University officials have said they would seek a combination of private donations and state funding.

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