HOUSTON, Texas — The University of Houston announced a major milestone Wednesday night with the official opening of the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine building, an institution dedicated to improving health care in underserved communities.
The university celebrated the ribbon cutting and grand opening of the new $80 million building Wednesday night.
Students have been learning inside the facility since July, but now the college has welcomed its third and largest class yet.
The three-story, 130,000-square-foot facility sits on 43 acres near the UH campus and features ultramodern classrooms, collaborative meeting spaces, and cutting-edge anatomy and simulation labs.
One of the most notable features of the college is that it’s designed to focus on training doctors who they hope will eventually practice medicine in communities that need them the most.
“All over this state, rural communities and urban communities, there are areas that have significant physician shortages," said Dr. Stephen Spann, the founding dean of the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine.
“We realized that if you bring students from communities and keep their passion alive, the chances are they’ll go back and serve their communities where the need is the most," said UH President Renu Khator said.
It's something UH System Board of Regents Chairman Tilman Fertitta said he’s always been passionate about.
“I don’t think everybody is equal on anything, but everybody should be equal in one thing. We should all get the same medical care," he said. "I don’t care who you are, where you’re from, how much money you make. Everybody should be treated the same when it comes to medicine."
At full enrollment, 480 students will call the building their academic home.