Gov. Phil Bredesen announced his support for a freestanding, privately funded pharmacy school at ETSU during a luncheon at Stanton-Gerber Hall Thursday.
“Today, I’m here to step up to the plate with you,” Bredesen said, as cheers and applause erupted in the hall, and balloons were let loose from the balcony. “There’s room in our state for an additional pharmacy school.”
Bredesen said the deciding factors for him were the “sensible and reasonable” plan ETSU officials had proposed, and the amount of community support the project had garnered.
“This is a very impressive effort on the part of the local community,” Bredesen said during a press conference immediately following the luncheon. “In the end, I really want to reward that kind of thing.”
The plan calls for $16 million in start-up funds to be raised from private donations, $5 million of which Bredesen said he would like ETSU officials to raise in 12 weeks. An additional $2.5 million should also be raised as a “buffer,” he said.
After that, the final proposal and financial information would be presented to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission in July, where ETSU officials are expected to receive final approval to build the school.
If all goes as expected, the school should open in January of 2007.
“I want to take a complete plan,” Bredesen said. “I want to say, ‘Look … here’s where we’re getting the money, we’ve got the pledges in hand, we’ve got the bank loan in hand, if that’s what it takes for the building. Give us the opportunity to move forward with this because this is something that Northeast Tennessee really wants, and frankly, deserves.'”
ETSU President Paul Stanton called Bredesen’s support “a bold decision” for an elected official to make, and said his thoroughness in going over the proposal was thoughtful and businesslike.
To show that fund-raising efforts for the school were underway, Stanton presented Bredesen with a piggy bank painted with a Buccaneer logo. “The fund raising, Governor, has begun,” he said.
Stanton also appealed to the community for donations, and some attendees left checks.
Bredesen’s announcement came after university officials spent several months working to convince THEC to grant permission for the new school.
University of Tennessee officials had previously contested plans for the school, fearing a loss of state funds for their own pharmacy program.
UT President John Petersen and dean of the UT College of Pharmacy, Dick Gourley, did not return phone calls to comment on the announcement.
However, ETSU College of Medicine Dean Ronald Franks said that Peterson expressed his support for the program.
“We’re appreciative of that,” Franks said.
Though Bredesen said he had some initial concerns about the way the ETSU plan came about, he praised it as being “as good as it is unprecedented.”
“This was taken kind of out of order,” the governor said. “It’s not the usual process by which these things are done. There were concerns about having any school kind of getting out of line this way.
“But I’m trying to shake things up a little bit and say, ‘Look, if somebody’s willing to step out and do this, we ought to be rewarding that kind of initiative.'”
Higher education, Bredesen said, would become increasingly dependent on community support.
“Every state is facing the same kind of budget crunches,” he said. “So when a community steps forward and says, ‘Let us help finance this thing,’ you have to respect that and honor it, and you have to support it.”
Another factor that influenced him was the success of ETSU’s medical school.
“Thirty-one years ago, our elected officials took a chance on this facility,” he said, referring to what has become an infamous showdown in the general assembly to allow ETSU to build a medical school. Despite fierce opposition from UT supporters, it ended with a one-vote victory for ETSU.
“It turned out to be a risk that has proven to be a very good investment,” Bredesen said.
The governor also said he believed ETSU proved “it has what it takes” to implement and run a strong pharmacy program that will be an asset to the state.
“I really believe the money is there,” he said. “I think a lot of the [ETSU pharmacy] students will stay in the area. It’s a win-win for everyone, and I’m pleased to be a small part of it.”

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