The pharmacy school isn’t the only new college in developmental stages at ETSU.
Dr. Creg Bishop, interim dean and professor of College of Public and Allied Health, has started work on what he said he hopes will be the new ETSU College of Public Health. “It’s a really big process,” he said.
Bishop knows his time in the office is temporary, but he’s got a major goal to accomplish while he’s there.
His goals first include proposing the plans to ETSU President Dr. Paul Stanton. Accreditation is Bishop’s main goal for the school. Everything else leads up to that, he said.
Bishop and the CPAH presented the new school proposals for two new doctoral programs to Stanton at the end of March, he said.
“He (Stanton) is the person who decides how the money will be allocated,” Bishop said.
Once Stanton has approved the proposal, ETSU will then submit its own program proposal to the Tennessee Board of Regents and the Tennessee Higher Education Committee for approvals and recommendations for funding by the Tennessee Legislature, Bishop said.
ETSU won’t be approved or given any grant money for the new college until the proposals have been made and approved by TBR and THEC, Bishop said.
Once TBR officially approves of the concept along with THEC, the instruction can begin. When the school opens, the clock can start ticking for an official announcement to the Council on Education for Public Health, the accreditation body for Public Health Colleges in the United States, Bishop said. TBR is approving the concept “That part of the battle is already won,” Bishop said.
The next stage of the battle will be up to CEPH, he said.
The college officials will “announce” themselves publicly to CEPH in the fall of 2006, Bishop said. “We hope to admit the first students in the doctoral programs by August 2007,” he said.
Then CEPH will do a site visit to the new college in fall of 2008 to see if the college meets its accreditation requirements, Bishop said.
Accreditation for a new school of public health requires professors teaching in all five medical fields, and two doctoral programs, Bishop said. Those medical fields include public health administration, community health, epidemiology and biostatistics.
Bishop isn’t the only one in the College of Public and Allied Health involved in the proposals for the new college. Part of proposing the new doctoral programs has been up to Bishop’s colleagues, he said.
Ph.D. and Dr.P.H. of public and environmental health sciences are the new doctoral programs that will be offered through the College of Public Health, ETSU Associate Professor of Environmental Health Dr. Kurt J. Maier said.
“These two doctoral programs will be necessary parts of the new school,” said Maier, who currently teaches two graduate level courses.
Colleges of Public Health are considered prestigious colleges, Bishop said. “There are 36 accredited schools of public health in the nation,” he said, “and we want to be added to that group.”
Bishop’s sights aren’t only on the new school and two new doctorates offered, he said. One of the paramount aspects of this initiative is to improve the quality and quantity of professors. The school is already doing a number of searches to hire faculty, he said.
“We’ve had hundreds of master’s graduates in public and environmental health,” he said, “That base will be here.”
That base is what Bishop said can help the region economically and provide part of the initial enrollments. “The way these colleges operate, they will be self-sufficient within a few years,” Bishop said.
The new college proposal could bring more than just new faculty and students to the region. “Education is a key component to the economy,” said ETSU alumna and certified economic developer April L. Eads. “Education always has a huge economical impact.”
Enrollments, faculty and a $6 million budget could do a lot for East Tennessee’s economy, and that’s something Bishop is proud of. “We are known for serving rural constituents,” he said.
Tennessee has the highest number per capita of prescriptions of medication per person, Bishop said, “We aren’t doing well with prevention.”
“This is an opportunity to improve the health of Tennessee as a whole, and in order to do that you really need a school of public health,” Maier said.
The new school is just as big as the pharmacy school in size and undertaking, he said, and “It needs a lot of community support.

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