Financial management detrimental at Drexel
By: Robert Zaller
Issue date: 7/23/04 Section: Ed-Op
Originally published: 7/22/04 at 9:25 PM EST
Last update: 7/22/04 at 9:30 PM EST
Originally published: 7/22/04 at 9:25 PM EST
Last update: 7/22/04 at 9:30 PM EST
The President embarks on a mission that has nothing to do with the tradition, experience and vital interests of those he leads. He conceals the costs of the enterprise from his constituents and their elected representatives, or provides optimistic projections that few consider realistic and which prove far off the mark. He finds himself dealing with dubious partners who use him for their own purposes and then abandon him. Recklessly overextended, he is forced to scale back operations, yet the fiscal bleeding is unstanched. He has neither a credible plan to achieve his goals nor an exit strategy. He admits no fault, concedes only a few unexpected obstacles and plunges ahead. The cheering has stopped, but he takes the silence for consent.
Iraq? No, Drexel.
This has been a grim year for Drexel's Great Experiment in medical education. First, there was last year's huge deficit, which entirely consumed Drexel's budgetary reserve and more. Then, in December, Tenet dropped the dime by announcing the closure of MCP Hospital. Much confusion followed. First, we heard that a consulting firm had been hired to explore the possibility of acquiring the hospital on our own. Then we were assured that no such move was being contemplated. Later on, we learned that a bid was apparently in play after all, only to have been rejected by our erstwhile buddy, Governor Ed Rendell (The Inquirer, May 16). Following that, we stripped the hospital's walls of its art, accumulated over a century and a half, while doctors and staff formed a human chain to stop it. That was a day, I'm sure, that made us all feel prouder. Finally, we learn that the medical school itself faces open-heart surgery. It will reduce its student body by 300, and its faculty by - oh, that wasn't announced.
The President was asked why a tuition-driven institution of modest scale and means, only lately recovered from the verge of bankruptcy and with no connection with or experience in the healing arts, should undertake to set up a medical school with the largest enrollment in the country. I heard several paragraphs in reply, but got no answer. Others considered my question inopportune. I suppose it was. It should have been asked three or four years ago, and not by a single faculty member but by the entire body of the faculty.
Iraq? No, Drexel.
This has been a grim year for Drexel's Great Experiment in medical education. First, there was last year's huge deficit, which entirely consumed Drexel's budgetary reserve and more. Then, in December, Tenet dropped the dime by announcing the closure of MCP Hospital. Much confusion followed. First, we heard that a consulting firm had been hired to explore the possibility of acquiring the hospital on our own. Then we were assured that no such move was being contemplated. Later on, we learned that a bid was apparently in play after all, only to have been rejected by our erstwhile buddy, Governor Ed Rendell (The Inquirer, May 16). Following that, we stripped the hospital's walls of its art, accumulated over a century and a half, while doctors and staff formed a human chain to stop it. That was a day, I'm sure, that made us all feel prouder. Finally, we learn that the medical school itself faces open-heart surgery. It will reduce its student body by 300, and its faculty by - oh, that wasn't announced.
The President was asked why a tuition-driven institution of modest scale and means, only lately recovered from the verge of bankruptcy and with no connection with or experience in the healing arts, should undertake to set up a medical school with the largest enrollment in the country. I heard several paragraphs in reply, but got no answer. Others considered my question inopportune. I suppose it was. It should have been asked three or four years ago, and not by a single faculty member but by the entire body of the faculty.
