Concordia will offer pharmacy school

Wisconsin is about to gain some much-needed pharmacists.

Officials at Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon announced today that the university's Board of Regents has approved funding to start a pharmacy school in the 2009-10 academic year.

The state currently has just one school of pharmacy, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That school graduates about 130 pharmacists annually, but more than three applicants apply for every available seat in the school, said UW-Madison Pharmacy Dean Jeanette Roberts.

"There is a shortage in the state, and we could use more pharmacy graduates," Roberts said. "We can't expand on campus, but we are trying to be responsive by looking at creative distance learning options."

The health care industry is experiencing a near-crisis in recruiting pharmacists, because the rate of students coming in is not keeping up with the increasing number of retirees who will need medications, according to the AARP.

A study completed in 2006 by David Mott, a UW-Madison associate professor of pharmacy, found that 41 percent of male pharmacists were 55 or older, and 27 percent of female pharmacists worked part-time. Mott said previously in an Associated Press story that about 25 to 30 percent of community pharmacies in small towns and rural areas in Wisconsin had a vacancy in a pharmacist job in 2005.

Concordia will launch a nationwide search to hire a dean to oversee the new school. An additional 25 to 35 full-time and part-time pharmacy faculty and support staff also will be needed.

Plans are to accept from 50 to 75 students per class. Admission requirements and tuition rates are being finalized.

Nationally, there are about 100 accredited pharmacy schools.

Concordia has offered a nursing program since 1982 and programs in occupational therapy, physical therapy and graduate nursing since 1994. The university also established a doctorate of physical therapy program in 2001.

Concordia University Wisconsin was founded in 1881. The university and its 16 adult education centers and classroom locations instruct more than 5,500 undergraduate and graduate students from 38 states and 24 countries.

The university is affiliated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and is a member of the Concordia University System, a nationwide network of colleges and universities.

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