Central Michigan University College of Medicine plans to move its campus to Saginaw, George Kikano, the CMED dean, said.
The new campus will cost $200 million, and they are hoping to move by 2028, Kikano said.
“That’s a very bold move,” he said. “That’s an aggressive timeline. It’s an aggressive capital campaign. But the benefit here is for the whole region anywhere from Mount Pleasant all the way to Saginaw. This is not just economic impact in Saginaw, this is putting CMU ... on the map.”
What will this move mean for Mount Pleasant?
Kikano said most medical students who are juniors and seniors are already studying on CMU’s campus in Saginaw. The plan is to move freshmen and sophomores there. That will be about 200 students leaving Mount Pleasant.
“Two hundred students out of 14,000 ... there probably won’t be too much of an (economic) affect as we move those two hundred out,” he said.
Mount Pleasant City Manager Aaron Desentz said the city doesn't yet have exact numbers to indicate the economic impact of these students leaving the area.
“People leaving the area means that's money leaving the area,” Desentz said. “At the same time, we're hopeful and optimistic as Central Michigan University's plan is to try to backfill those students in some way, by expanding other programs.”
Kikano also said CMU is hoping to introduce new and grow other programs on Mount Pleasant’s campus. According to CMU News article, President Bob Davies said those programs could be nursing, physician assistant, athletic training and other.
The research facilities will also stay on Mount Pleasant’s campus, Kikano said.
Meanwhile, Kikano said it is a personal choice for faculty where to live and said that some of them live in Saginaw already.
Desentz said that CMU in general is the second largest employer in Mount Pleasant, second only to Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe’s Soaring Eagle Casino.
Amanda Garrison, a Faculty Association president, said the CMED faculty is not a part of their union. That means they did not sign a faculty contract.
But Garrison said, to her best knowledge, the faculty love Mount Pleasant.
“Faculty live here,” Garrison said. “Faculty spend money here. Faculty have children here, faculty work here. ... We need Mount Pleasant.”
Mount Pleasant needs CMU as well, Desentz said.
“It’s a very impactful organization overall,” he said. “And then you’ve got, let’s say, about 13,000 students that would be affiliated with the college ... their families that come in on a regular basis, any kind of faculty, you’re taking about a significant portion of the population (of Mount Pleasant.)”
Desentz said one of the city’s goals is to connect with CMU more in future and create learning opportunities for students such as internships with the city, businesses and other organizations.
“I just want to see a lot of those kinds of things grow because (they) offer students real world experience, but then obviously offers the city the benefit of well-educated young men and women coming in and creating value for the city as an organization,” Desentz said.
Garrison said it is important to work with the local community and continue to strengthen the relationship between CMU and Mount Pleasant.
“We have to be together,” she said. “You cannot be separated from the community.”
One of the reasons CMED is moving to Saginaw is to expand the medical program. Trustee Todd Anson said at the Board of Trustees meeting on June 25 that CMU aims to increase the number of medical students, growing to 150 per class.
He said Saginaw is a good location for medical students because they will have an opportunity to train in the Saginaw hospitals. They have more hospital beds than a clinic in Mount Pleasant, which is important for education, Anson said.
Why Saginaw?
The idea of CMED was advanced in 2008 by the Board of Trustees, according to Clarke Historical Library collection. Classes first started in August 2013. The first class had 64 students.
The program had a rural focus, with a goal to be housed in Health Professions Building and bring CMU increased research funding and bring prestige to the university.
Kikano said the CMED’s goal is still to train physicians who will then work in underserved communities, but now those communities are both rural and urban such as Saginaw.
“Our mission is consistent,” he said. “We need to train physicians mostly from Michigan to provide services for underserved communities in Michigan and beyond, we need to build research and we have great programs now around rural health.”
Additionally, Kikano said that “Saginaw is not new for us,” and that CMED already works with community partners there and houses residency programs.
“We have relationships will all providers in the region,” he said. “MyMichigan, obviously, that has hospitals in Alma, Clare, Midland. ... McLaren that has hospitals in Mount Pleasant and Bay City.”
He said the expansion of CMED is also a part of the Medical Diamond Project, which is a Saginaw development project.
“We have a good product,” he said. “We have over 1,000 applicants that want to come to Central Michigan Medical School. We don’t have the space and the facilities for them.”
Where will the funding for CMED come from?
CMU already has a building in Saginaw where juniors and seniors study and where CMU houses residency programs, Kikano said. The goal is to construct one more brand-new building that can house all the CMED.
CMED is also looking for funding for student scholarships and faculty research, Kikano said.
That all will cost $200 million, and Kikano said CMED plans to raise that money in three to four years.
In comparison, the funding goal for CMED is half of the total CMU’s operating budget for 2024-2025, which is $443.2 million, according to CMU News article.
Kikano said they are also working with community partners, who help with fundraising. Fundraising efforts will start this fall.
“I have full confidence that we will be able to raise the funds,” Kikano said. “CMU is in no position (to fund it). There’s six other colleges to support. There’s many other programs that are worthy of the investments within CMU. ... We’ll be raising an additional $200 million from outside sources.”
Kikano said this move and expansion of CMED aims to bring recognition and more students to CMU.
According to CMU’s 2024-2025 Operating Budget, the total revenue of CMED is $29,134,855 and total expenses are $28,482,418.
“We have a great vision,” he said. “We have a great mission. ... So far the College of Medicine has an outstanding track record. We are on the map."
Editor's note: We note WCMU's broadcast license is held by Central Michigan University. WCMU's newsroom is editorially independent from CMU, and the university is not involved in writing, editing or reviewing our reports.
