photo by: Screenshot/KU Health System

University of Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod speaks during a KU Health System webcast Tuesday, May 26, 2020.

A more than $300 million plan by Wichita State and the University of Kansas to create a new medical school complex in downtown Wichita has won its first round of approval from the Kansas Board of Regents.

Regents on Thursday unanimously approved a program statement for a new $302 million medical center campus that would bring together the KU Medical Center’s Wichita campus with Wichita State’s College of Health Professions and WSU’s affiliated technical schools that train a variety of health care technicians and other professionals. The KU School of Pharmacy also would have a presence in the new downtown Wichita campus.

Regents were told that KU’s portion of the project is expected to cost about $146 million, while Wichita State’s portion of the project would total $156 million. Regents were enthusiastic in their support for the project.

“The collaboration on this is commendable, and the economic impact it could have is significant,” Regent Cheryl Harrison-Lee said. “This further confirms what higher education can do in this state.”

Regents Chair Jon Rolph, who lives in Wichita, said the project had created a lot of excitement among community leaders there. WSU President Richard Muma said he thinks the project will be “transformative” for the south-central Kansas region and will fill a gap in medical expertise and research in that part of the state.

For KU’s part, Chancellor Douglas Girod said the project will serve as a replacement for the KU Medical School campus in Wichita. The current campus has a lot of deferred maintenance, and a new downtown location will help with student recruitment, he said.

A few new details about funding for the project emerged Thursday. KU and Wichita State both intend to seek $10 million a year in state funding, some of which will be used to make significant debt payments to support the project. The project also is seeking $60 million of one-time funding through the state process that is awarding federal pandemic relief funding.

When the project is completed — which could be as early as 2026, if funding materializes — the complex could serve about 3,000 students and have about 250 staff and faculty members, Muma estimated. The joint complex is envisioned to train a variety of future health care professionals, including doctors, pharmacists, nurses, physical therapists, technicians and other medical providers.

Thursday’s approval by the Regents was a key step to add the project as an official state project that the universities are pursuing, a required step to make the project eligible for state funding.