New medical school planned mid−Willamette Valley

AP State Online Oregon

The Associated Press

CORVALLIS, Ore.

A California university and a Corvallis−based hospital operator plan to place a medical school in the mid−Willamette Valley city of Lebanon.

The 51−acre campus would be built across U.S. Highway 20 from Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, with a pedestrian bridge linking the two, the Gazette−Times newspaper reported.

Larry Mullins, president and chief executive of Samaritan Health Services, said he expects construction to start by 2010. The school would accept about 50 students a year, starting in 2011, and eventually expand.

The school will be affiliated with the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, a division of Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif. Read the full story >>