CMED receives $300,000 donation from Dow Corning Company
Dow Corning Co. has donated a pledged amount of $300,000 to the Central Michigan University College of Medicine to go toward the renovation of the Saginaw campus.
"Dow Corning Company has given (a combined total of) $450,000 to CMU's College of Medicine and Delta College," CMED Dean Ernest Yoder said via email Tuesday.
Yoder said Dow Corning pledged to donate $300,000 to CMED and assumes the remaining $150,000 will be given to Delta College.
Delta's Health Professions building was constructed in 1978 and is home to nursing, dental, radiology and other related programs. According to an article in the Midland Daily News, the money Delta received from the split will be put toward the renovation of its Health Sciences building, including improvements such as the construction of a critical care simulation area, multi-disciplinary laboratories and an upgraded dental clinic.
A payment schedule for the donation has yet to be established.
"Both of these projects are critical, not only in helping to provide quality health care in Michigan, but as economic drivers for our region,” Kathryn Curtiss Spence, director of the Dow Corning Foundation, told the Daily News.
Both CMU and Delta were chosen based on their commitment to producing primary care providers who are interested in practicing in the Mid-Michigan area, as well as the upper peninsula.
The money Delta received from Dow Corning will assist the college in qualifying for further funding from the state government. The renovations at Delta will be complete by fall 2013.
At CMU, the donation will go toward the $25 million fundraising goal that CMED expects to reach before students arrive next fall.
"We received written confirmation of this donation on Sept. 19," Yoder said via email. "The Dow Corning Board approved the gift on Sept. 18."
As of Tuesday, CMED has raised $19,822,754. The Dow Corning gift represents 1.5 percent of the raised amount and 1.2 percent of the $25 million goal.
The donation will be used to construct the medical school's east campus in Saginaw.
Medical students at CMU will spend their first two years on campus in Mount Pleasant and then transition for their third and fourth years to the Saginaw campus. They will receive clinical experience alongside physicians and primary care providers from Covenant Health Care and St. Mary's of Michigan, both hospitals located in Saginaw.
CMED will open in the fall, and the Saginaw location is expected to be complete by 2014.
