WAUSAU (WAOW) -
A new medical school will soon call Wausau home. Wausau beat out four other communities in Central Wisconsin to host the campus.
It's been a long road to get to this point. The Medical College of Wisconsin has long wanted to expand to our area.
Now, college leaders have decided Wausau is the best location.
"We liked the high visibility of the Liberty Mutual building in Wausau. We thought Wausau itself provided an outstanding environment for students to learn and live," Medical College of Wisconsin CEO John Raymond said.
Health care leaders in Central Wisconsin agree.
"We were delighted that the Medical College chose Central Wisconsin. As far as I'm concerned, any one of the locations would have been fine," Ministry St. Clare's President Mary Krueger said.
Wisconsin rapids, Marshfield and Stevens point were all in the running. But community leaders say it's not about where the college lands.
Multiple mayors tell Newsline9 they're just happy these students will be in the area.
The multi-year program is a combination of in-classroom learning and field training--that's where the other communities will come in.
"We really do need the entire region to be fully engaged to make this work," Raymond told Newsline 9.
Another site was announced for the Green Bay region. College leaders say the combined cost of the two campuses will be more than $20 million.
"There are many under served parts of this state that do not have enough physicians and we thought this model would help to address that by immersing the students in the community we hope they serve," Raymond added.
"The value of having a medical school here is really to bring physicians to this part of the state," Krueger told Newsline 9.
College leaders expect to have the school up and running by July 2015. But they say there's a lot of work to be done by then.
The medical school is set to take in 15 students the first year, and hope to expand to 25 students in each class as the college grows.
