Big Day for Shreveport: Governor Signs Bill to Pay State Medical School Cost

              6-A Wednesday, June 8, l966 THE SHREVEPORT TIMES
Big Day for Shreveport
Governor Signs Bill to Pay
State Medical School Cost
By SAM STRINGFELLOW
Titties Legislative Corresponden
BATON ROUGE—Gov. John J.
McKeithen at 4:30 p.m. Tues-day
formally signed into law a
bill authorizing financing of the
state's share of the cost for the
long-dreamed $30 million Louisi-ana
State University Medical
College in Shreveport.
'This is a great day for Lou-isiana,
as well as for Shreve-port
and its area," the Gov-ernor
declared.
"Our state's needs for a grow-ing
number of new physicians
are great, and will become great-er
because of medicare and the
generally higher level or our
state's economy.
"I have long dreamed of a
school such as this in the north-ern
part of the state, and
Shreveport with the well-devel-oped
Confederate Memorial Med-ical
Center is a logical home
for it.
"Too, we have been very
pleased," he added, addressing
the Shreveport delegation pres-e
t , "that it has been your wish
for this college to be a part of
the LSU system."
Assuring the governor of their
satisfaction that this relation-ship
with the LSU system was
in the best interests of the new
institution were a Shreveport
delegation consisting of Dr. Joe
Holoubek, c h a i r m a n of the
Shreveport LSU Medical School
Development Committee, Dr.
Charles Black, vice chairman of
the panel, and, representing the
chamber of commerce, T. B.
Lanford, president, and Alvin
Childs, vice president.
On hand from LSU for the
occasion were Dr. John A. Hunt-er,
president of the LSU system,
and from the New Orleans LSU
Medical School campus, Dr. Wil-liam
W. Frya, chancellor, Dr.
George McNeely, consultant to
the chancellor in planning for
the new Shreveport institution,
and Dr. Edgar Hull, associate
dean.
The legislative delegation pres-ent
was headed by Sen. Jackson
B. Davis and Rep. J. Bennett
Johnston Jr., both of Shreve-port,
who had been named by
the Northwest Louisiana delega-tion
to spearhead the bill through
legislative channels.
With them were Sen. B. H.
(Johnny) Rogers of Grand Cane,
Reps. Algie Brown, Morley Hud-son
and Frank Fulco of Shreve-port,
Rep. Parey Branton of
Shongaloo, Rep. Ford Stinson of
Benton and Rep. John Garrett
of Monroe.
STATE BONDS
Dr. Hunter and Dr. Frye told
Gov. McKeithen that no steps
to engage an architect or pro-gress
toward the ground break-ing
and contract-letting stage
could be taken until the initial
$5 million in state bonds have
been sold and funds set up.
"The bill already has been
examined by federal authorities
in Washington, and we are as-sured
that arrangements com-ply
with federal requirements
for two-to-one matching funds,"
Dr: Hunter said.
Dr. Frye and Dr. Hunter re-minded
the governor, however,
that LSU does need some funds
under the new budget to under-write
initial operating costs of
administering the initial organi-zation
and enrollment of the
new medical school.
McKeithen assured them every
effort would be made to ar-range
for the needed funds.
On behalf of the area legisla-tive
delegation as co-sponsor of
the medical school bill, Rep.
Johnston issued this statement:
"Governor John J. McKeithen
today (Tuesday) signed into law
authorization for the issuance of
$10 million in bonds to build a
new Louisiana State University
school of medicine at Shreve-port.
Every citizen of the Ark-
La-Tex will feel the influence
of the community of medical
scholars and research scientists.
"What does this mean for Cad-do
Parish, for the city and for the
Louisiana-Texas-Arkansas trian-gle?
"It means, first and foremost,
that 15 years of work and plan-ning
by our citizens, laymen
physicians and legislators togeth-er
has been crowned with suc-cess.
"It means that Shreveport, al-ready
the leading medical cen-ter
of this area, will gain even
greater stature. In many subtle
ways, this will reflect upon the
lives of every member of the
community. Every physician will
see an increase in the flow of
patients to this area. Every busi-nessman
will feel the impact of
this new influx. Every citizen will
feel the influence of the new
community of medical scholars
and research scientists.
"Shreveport will become a more
cosmopolitan city and its name
across the nation and abroad will
have added lustre, not only be-cause
of the increase in the intel-lectual
community, but also be-cause
many distinguished visitors
from far places will come here
to share their knowledge with us
and return home to tell their com-munities
of the progress visible
in this progressive area.
ENCOURAGED
"For more than a decade the
board of supervisors and the
president of the Louisiana State
University system through its
medical center in New Orleans
has encouraged the development
of the new school by its support
of a postgraduate faculty of med-icine
at Confederate Memorial
Medical Center. With the guid-ance
of Dr. William W. Frye,
medical center chancellor, and
Dr. Edgar Hull, professor and
head of the department of medi-cine
of the New Orleans school,
the doctors of the Shreveport
Medical Society have worked un-der
the general chairmanship of
Dr. Joe Holoubek to perfect
plans.
"Committee members have vis-ited
new and old medical schools,
studied architectural designs, re-viewed
curriculum details, eval-uated
courses and investigated
funding.
"As a result, plans for the new
medical school are even now in
an advanced stage of develop-ment.
"Most tangible are the dollars
which will flow to this commu-nity.
With federal matching funds,
the bond issue will support, over
the next 10 years, $30 million in
new construction.
"As the school gets under way,
it will build to its full enrollment
of 400 students. Each student will
spend about $3,500 in Shreveport
each year, about $1,400,000 of new
money annually.
"The faculty will come to num-ber
about 400. Of the teachers in
the clinical departments, many
will be men already in our medi-cal
community, but about 200
families will move to Shreveport
to fill the research and basic
science faculties. In addition, ad-ministrative,
engineering, techni-cal,
maintenance and custodial
employes will swell the rolls of
new jobs created in this city.
"In all, the operating budget
from state funds will rise to about
$3 million, and a like amount will
come from research and teaching
grants, a total of $6 million of
new money for Shreveport each
year.
"Credit for this achievement
and this promise for the future
lies with the people of Shreveport.
"The new Louisiana State Uni-versity
School of Medicine at
Shreveport is unique in the his-tory
of medical education be-cause
it has come into being by
the efforts of the community, not
by arbitrary action of outside
agencies. The efforts of laymen
of this community, channeled
through the Chamber of Com-merce,
the tireless work of physi-cians
and surgeons channeled
through the Shreveport Medical
Society, and the efforts of your
representatives and senators have
borne this fruit.
"The future for it is bright.