UT Tyler President Kirk Calhoun, left, and Kevin P. Eltife, Chairman of the UT System Board of Regents, are pictured. 

The University of Texas at Tyler School of Medicine project continues to advance.

On Thursday, the UT Board of Regents gave final authorization for design, development, and additional construction funding for the medical school’s new Medical Education Building – approving a total project cost of $308 million for the facility.

The UT Tyler School of Medicine will welcome its first cohort of students to campus in the summer of 2023 and the building is expected to be completed in March 2025.

“By approving the total project cost, design development and allocation of funds for the new Medical Education Building today, the regents are taking the next pivotal step in launching the UT System’s seventh medical school – one that is specifically dedicated to benefitting Northeast Texas for generations,” said Kevin P. Eltife, chairman of the UT Board of Regents.

The Medical Education Building, a planned five-story, nearly 248,000-square-foot facility, will support interdisciplinary education for graduate medical students, resident training, and nursing, and aid as part of a medical education program expansion throughout the UT Health East Texas Health System.

In addition, the building will provide outpatient and specialty clinical services with exam rooms, specimen collection/processing, and imaging facilities.

“This facility provides the physical cornerstone of UT Tyler’s plan to train physicians and meet health care needs across the state, while also growing workforce opportunities and economic development in the region,” said James B. Milliken, UT System chancellor.

The building will be built in Tyler’s midtown district and will connect via skybridge to the UT Health East Texas Hospital – allowing for hands-on learning of residents in the adjacent hospitals.

It is designed to have blended programming and clinical spaces for patient care, including women’s imaging, women’s health, diagnostic center, orthopedics, and sports medicine, pulmonary and a surgery center to support medical residents in the graduate medical education programs.

“I am immensely grateful to the UT System Board of Regents, Chancellor Milliken and our community of supporters who have been instrumental in the efforts to enhance health education for East Texas,” UT Tyler President Kirk A. Calhoun said.

The UT Tyler School of Medicine will be the first in northeast Texas, offering aspiring doctors a chance to train and practice without leaving the region. Capital projects funded over the next decade, including the new Medical Education Building, will ensure the new medical school has the right environment in place to draw and retain exceptional medical school faculty and students and enhance biomedical research and core residency programs.

The medical school has received tons of support from various organizations and individuals, including financial contributions, since plans for the startup were first announced in February 2020.

“A medical school in Tyler will give East Texans the chance to pursue their career aspirations without having to leave the region to do so,” Eltife previously said. “More importantly, it will increase the number of physicians and critical specialty areas to serve the region, which ultimately will enhance health outcomes and benefit all East Texans.

“And having more health care professionals in the area will have a positive impact on hospitals and hospital systems in the region including UT Health East Texas, Christus Trinity Mother Frances and Baylor Scott & White Texas Spine & Joint.”

In May 2021, the Texas Legislature approved authorizing the Health Science Center at UT Tyler to put resources toward getting accreditation for a doctor of medicine program.

The Texas Legislature made the medical school possible and the UT System provided a strong start, but the funding of this institution is largely a community responsibility, said Bob Garrett, president of R.W. Fair Foundation, which gave a monumental donation to the medical school about a year ago last November.

The R.W. Fair Foundation’s $4 million donation will provide four-year scholarships for all 40 students in the incoming class, allowing them to earn their medical education while acquiring almost no debt. Those funds will help address some of the worst measurable health outcomes in rural East Texas, enhance local and regional education and invest in the strongest regional economic driver in a generation, Garrett said.

Also last November, the East Texas Medical Center Foundation donated $3 million to the medical school.

The support continued to explode in 2022. This April, an anonymous gift of $4 million was gifted to support school of medicine scholarships and faculty research.

In June, the medical school received notification from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) that it was granted preliminary accreditation. The university called it a monumental milestone that will allow the school to begin recruiting its first class of medical students for 2023.

And the momentum didn’t stop there. In July, the Robert M. Rogers Foundation gifted $10 million to the school to support mental and behavioral health education.

In August, the UT Board of Regents approved an allocation of $100 million in Permanent University Fund (PUF) bond proceeds over the next 10 years. This will help fund capital expenses associated with the startup of the school of medicine.

Most recently in September, UT Tyler announced a $5 million gift to the medical school Ednamae Walsh to support scholarships and pathway programs for the medical school.

As a result of this generosity, every student enrolled in the second class of the UT Tyler School of Medicine will receive a four-year scholarship to cover their full tuition. This follows the 2021 gift from the Fair Foundation covering full-tuition scholarships for the first School of Medicine class, which will enroll in fall 2023.

A portion of the gift will be used to support the School of Medicine’s Pathways Program. This program will assist in addressing the physician shortage in East Texas by coordinating pathways for students to enter medical school. According to a study by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the country will face a shortfall of up to 139,000 physicians by 2033.

The new pathways program will provide encouragement, support and direction for entering the health professions. Combining early enrichment and education with counseling, advising and early assurance and support initiatives, the program will create a seamless pipeline of intellectual and social enrichment, which will prepare students for entry into medical training, particularly in primary care and short-supply specialties.

“This generous gift will create opportunities for students across the region in numerous ways,” Calhoun previously said. “Not only will it make a medical degree more affordable, but it will also make it more accessible through our programs designed to engage learners in health care professions as early as possible.”

Calhoun said he is “eternally grateful” to all of these supporters who generously desire to “help us address the health care needs of East Texas.”

Founding dean Dr. Brigham Willis previously commented on the tremendous support, noting how pleased he is to see the plans all coming to fruition thanks to the support of so many. The “overwhelming philanthropic support” received since the medical school was first announced is impressive, he said.

Others who are interested in making a gift to UT Tyler, or the School of Medicine specifically, may contact UT Tyler University Advancement at 903-566-7110 or visit uttyler.edu/give.