Blunt: Use MOHELA money for MU, UMKC

By Juana Summers

Published Dec. 7, 2007

Gov. Matt Blunt has called for the use of $46.2 million in assets from the sale of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority earlier this year to fund healthcare-related programs on the MU and UM-Kansas City campuses.

According to two separate news releases, Blunt has called for $31.2 million to support the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center on the MU campus, and an additional $15 million to support the construction of the Pharmacy and Nursing Building on the UMKC campus.

When Blunt signed the measure authorizing the sale of MOHELA, part of the Louis and Clark Discovery Initiative, in May, MU was not included in the universities to receive $230 million in funding.

Senate Republicans cut funding for projects in Columbia and Kansas City after Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia, and Sen. Jolie Justus, D-Kansas City, expressed opposition to the plan.

The $31.2 million appropriated toward the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center will allow for more comprehensive cancer care, increased capacity of cancer clinics and work towards the center receiving designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute, according to the media release.

The National Cancer Institute Web site states that the only Comprehensive Cancer Center in the state of Missouri is located at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. Only 39 Comprehensive Cancer Centers exist in the country, according to the Web site.

The $15 million appropriated toward the UMKC campus will go toward the construction of the Pharmacy and Nursing Building, which will add 34,000 square feet of instructional space to the campus, as well as new laboratories and a new research center, according to the news release.

Construction of this building began in March 2005, according to the UMKC Web site, and it is expected to cost $50.2 million.