“...the new Liberty University Center for Medical and Health Sciences will dramatically enhance our reputation as not only a distinctively Christian but also a world-class university.” -Dr. Ronald S. Godwin
encourage its medical students to begin their medical careers in underserved communities in Southside Virginia and is strongly considering student loan forgiveness as an incentive in that regard.” The Virginia Tobacco Commission approved a $12 million grant for the project in October 2011. It was the second largest grant ever authorized by the commission, which dispenses money obtained by the federal government in a landmark settlement with tobacco companies. The settlement money is intended to offset lost revenue to local tobacco farmers by providing grants to entities that accept the commission’s mandate that they help create jobs in those counties formerly so
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dependent on tobacco-related jobs. The medical school is eligible for the grant because it will be built on a site in that part of Liberty’s campus located just inside Virginia’s Tobacco District in Campbell County. According to an impact study commissioned by the university, health care is the only growing employment sector in the tobacco region; in fact, in 2010, health-related jobs increased by 5.5 percent while employment as a whole decreased by 5.4 percent. A 27 percent increase in the number of available jobs in health professions is projected between 2008 and 2018. Currently, 2,169 healthrelated jobs remain unstaffed every year in the region because of a lack of trained personnel
to fill them. A certain number of the health professionals moving into Virginia’s Southside will themselves become employers and creators of even more jobs. In addition to the medical school, Liberty will launch an expanded School of Health Sciences to train nurses and other skilled health and medical personnel. The School of Health Sciences is expected to enroll several thousand students from its inception, making it one of the largest schools on the Liberty campus. Both the medical school and the Health Sciences school will be led by their own deans. Classes at the schools are set to begin in Fall 2013. A growing interest by a number of