WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (WAVY) - The Eastern Virginia Medical School is exploring the option of becoming the William & Mary School of Medicine, according to the college.

In a statement issued by both the College of William & Mary and the Easter Virginia Medical School, the possible change must be carefully investigated before a decision is made. The length of the process is unknown.

William & Mary President Taylor Reveley sent the following message Tuesday:

Later today we will issue a joint statement with Eastern Virginia Medical School saying that both institutions will take a long, hard look at whether EVMS should become the William & Mary School of Medicine.

There are miles to go and much information to be developed and studied before either W&M or EVMS will be ready to make a decision, one way or the other. Any such combination would require approval by the College's Board of Visitors as well as the Governor and General Assembly.

It will be important to engage the W&M community in consideration of this possibility. To that end,I will ask a group, led by the Provost, to pull the laboring oar on our due diligence.

In my view, the EVMS possibility is worth careful consideration. EVMS is an institution we know and respect. Many W&M graduates have gone to medical school there. And there has been productive research collaboration between the two schools.

Whether asking for state approval of this combination will ultimately prove to be in our best interests, all factors considered, is what we must now carefully determine. The same, obviously, is true of EVMS from its perspective.

If the choice is made to proceed, the General Assembly and Governor will have to approve.

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EVMS may become W&M School of Medicine