UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE
FY 2009 CAPITAL BUDGET TESTIMONY

David J. Ramsay, D.M., D. Phil., President

Good afternoon.  It is with great pleasure that I am here to discuss the FY 2009 Capital Request for funding an Addition to the University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Pharmacy.    This project has been in the capital queue for almost 15 years and during that time the need for trained pharmacists has grown tremendously.    This Addition will enable the School of Pharmacy to implement its plan to increase enrollment to help address this need.    Further, it will address long-standing accreditation issues with regard to space.

• Pharmacy Hall Addition and Renovation $67,227,000 Academic Revenue Bonds, GO Bonds, and NBF

The FY 2009 capital request includes funding for detailed planning and construction of the Addition.   The University has committed to raising $5 million for this project; the remaining fund sources for this request are $4,977,000 in Academic Revenue Bonds and $57,250,000 in GO Bonds.      

The 2006 Legislature appropriated $2.2 million for preliminary design.  Design has been underway for well over a year and we are positioned to begin construction in June 2008, once funding is available.  Because this project is required to implement enrollment increases, the University committed to advancing funds to allow the design process to continue uninterrupted between January, when the preliminary design fund appropriation was fully expended and June, when the detailed planning funds could be available.   The University will be reimbursed for any funds it spends for design from the Academic Revenue Bond authorization.

The Pharmacy Hall Addition will result in 112,565 GSF/65,018 NASF of new space and include lecture halls, teaching laboratories, research laboratories, faculty offices and student study and lounge areas.  The project also includes the renovation of approximately 11,400 GSF of Pharmacy Hall space where the new Addition interfaces with the existing facility.  The result will be an integrated complex able to support the School of Pharmacy’s planned enrollment growth of 82%.

With your support, the School of Pharmacy has begun a satellite program at the Universities at Shady Grove campus in order to increase the number of trained pharmacists practicing in Maryland.  This funded first phase of the school’s enrollment plan will increase faculty ranks by 38% in order to maintain the needed student-faculty ratios (in the past accreditation reports, the school was cited for not maintaining appropriate student-faculty ratios).  Concurrently, additional administrative and research staff will be needed to support the additional faculty. 

New faculty and staff offices and research laboratories will be housed in Baltimore in the School of Pharmacy to maximize collegial interactions and enable the sharing of research equipment and related support facilities. During the concept phase of the design completed by the architects in the summer of 2006, it became apparent that the building as originally conceived would be overcrowded on the day it opens and unable to support any further planned enrollment increases.  Thus, the School requested that the original scope for the Addition be modified to include two additional floors of faculty offices and research laboratories.  This request was approved by the Department of Budget and Management and has been incorporated into the request.

 The importance of this project to the citizens of Maryland cannot be overstated.  There is a critical shortage of trained pharmacists in the state and the nation.  At the same time, as the population ages, the number of prescription drugs being taken by individuals is dramatically increasing.   Pharmacists are at the forefront of the management of these medications; they are the health care professionals who know best the implications of mixing various drug therapies; and so the demand for their expertise will continue to grow.  Appropriation of construction funds in FY 2009 will enable the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy to help address this need in as short a timeframe as possible.  We respectfully seek your support for this project.

I invite you to visit the following website http://www.pharmacy.umaryland.edu/pharmacyaddition/video to have a brief preview of the new Addition to Pharmacy Hall.

Thank you for your continuing support of the University of Maryland and higher education, in general.  I look forward to seeing you at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Addition to Pharmacy Hall later this year.