Photo by: Rick Danzl/The News-Gazette

Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana.

URBANA With trustee approval expected today, the University of Illinois will be on a "fast march" toward opening a new College of Medicine in Urbana by the fall 2017 target, officials say.

The engineering-based medical school, to be developed in partnership with Carle Health System, was endorsed Wednesday by UI President Bob Easter and received support from UI trustees, though they voiced concerns about long-term financing.

"We ask these questions because ... we have high aspirations for this medical school," Trustee James Montgomery said at a board committee meeting. "We're getting ready now to embark on a cutting-edge medical engineering project that can bring to this university the kind of prestige that its engineering department currently enjoys. All I hear is commitment around this table."

A formal vote is scheduled at this morning's board meeting in Urbana.

After studying the proposal for more than a year, Easter recommended that trustees move ahead with plans for the independently accredited medical school fusing engineering, technology, big data and medicine.

He said it would "advance the research capabilities of the Urbana campus, not only in engineering and biological sciences but in other areas." It also has the potential to promote Champaign-Urbana as a "biomedical research hub and enhance regional economic development and beyond," he said.

Carle has pledged $100 million over 10 years for the new medical school, which is designed to use no state funding. Carle and the UI are negotiating a draft memorandum of understanding "that would constitute a nonbinding, good-faith commitment to the proposed project," Easter's resolution says. Easter said he hopes that can be wrapped up by May.

The resolution recommends that any agreement with Carle include a provision that "if for any reason Carle is unable or unwilling to execute the agreement and perform its obligations under it, the university will not seek to replace Carle as a partner and clinical provider and will not pursue a separately accredited College of Medicine on the Urbana-Champaign campus."

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Easter backs medical school at Urbana