VCU news

By Sathya Achia Abraham

With the final steel beam now in place, faculty, medical students, residents and practicing physicians at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine are a step closer to a state-of-the art training hub that will launch a new standard in medical education.

Earlier today, a “topping out” ceremony of the James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Medical Education Center, which is currently under construction at the VCU School of Medicine, marked the completion of a critical phase of the project.

VCU officials, James and Frances McGlothlin and others in attendance inscribed messages and signed their names on the final beam, before it was raised to the top level of the new building and secured into place.

“The last piece of steel that will be raised interestingly represents a bar - a bar that will rise to demonstrate the high level of achievement of this School of Medicine, our first and founding program at Virginia Commonwealth University about 173 years ago,” said VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D.

“It also raises the bar for the entire university and certainly for the medical center. I am proud that that bar will represent in so many ways the greatness that we will achieve going forward.”

The plan for the interior of the 12-story, 200,000-square-foot building is to house the most significant renovation to the school’s curriculum in more than 30 years. The new facility will underscore VCU’s commitment to student success, human health and research.   

The $158.6 million building also will enable the school to address the projected national and statewide physician shortage by accommodating a larger class size, increasing individual class enrollment from 200 to 250 and growing the total medical student body to 1,000. The university’s priority to treat and cure cancer will be enabled even further through the new building – the top floors will house the VCU Massey Cancer Center’s research pavilions.

“This project started as just a concept, a whisper five to six years ago, and now it is reality,” said Jerome F. Strauss III, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of Medicine.

“I want to recognize our faculty who have been - at the same time as this construction project has taken shape - engaged in their own demolition and renovation with the new curriculum which will come to life in this spectacular building. They’ve worked incredibly hard.”

Earlier this year, VCU officials announced a $25 million donation – one of the largest in the university’s history -- to the VCU School of Medicine by the McGlothlins. The donation itself was made in recognition of Harold Young, M.D., director of the Harold F. Young Neurosurgical Center at the VCU Medical Center. Young also is professor and founding chair of the Department of Neurosurgery, a position he has held for more than half of his 38-year tenure at VCU.

“It was Dr. Young’s friendship and outstanding clinical skills that inspired the McGlothlins to make their leadership gift for this medical school,” said Sheldon M. Retchin, M.D., CEO of the VCU Health System and vice president of VCU Health Sciences.  

“We hope that students who train, attend classes in this building, are instructed and form mentoring partnerships with our wonderful faculty here will follow in Harry Young’s footsteps soon,” he said.

To honor the McGlothlins’ generosity and vision, Strauss and Young presented the couple with their own white lab coats and they were officially made members of the MCV family. The presentation was similar to the annual White Coat ceremony held each year at the VCU School of Medicine, which celebrates incoming medical students and their future in the field of medicine.

“This is another type of White Coat Ceremony - it represents the future of medical education and most importantly the people who enabled it,” said Strauss.

Both alumni and community foundations have rallied around the project and made significant contributions to support these efforts.

The construction team and those involved with the physical construction on the project were also recognized for their contributions.

The project is scheduled for completion in Spring 2013.