POPULAR STUDENT MEDICAL PROGRAM IN CRITICAL CONDITION

For 23 years the Chicago Area Health and Medical Careers Program has successfully increased the number of minority students entering medicine, dentistry and other health care disciplines. The program is in partnership with Illinois Institute of Technology, part of IIT’s ongoing commitment to enrichment programs in math, science and technology.

But this year, reeling under state budget cuts, CAHMCP (pronounced, CHAMP) faces an uncertain future and a funding emergency. CAHMCP leadership is now sounding the alarm, seeking the attention of the Illinois Legislature’s Minority Caucus.

“The Illinois Board of Higher Education has had to slash our 2003 fiscal budget by nearly half a million dollars because of the state’s dreadful financial situation,” said CAHMCP Executive Director Dr.Reggie Jones. “We are devastated to the point the program can no longer support the unique and varied student activities and academic services that made us the largest program of its kind in the country, helping minority students enter careers in medicine, dentistry and other health professions.”

CAHMCP has turned its plea to the Minority Caucus, hoping its political clout can restore funding at least to mid-1990 levels. Forty state lawmakers have been invited to an emergency forum Saturday, Oct. 19, 2002, to learn more about the impact of the funding cuts. The forum will take place from 10 a.m. until noon in the Hermann Hall Auditorium at Illinois Institute of Technology, 3241 S. Federal Street.

“We must educate our political representatives on why it’s absolutely imperative to restore CAHMCP’s state funding to a workable level,” said Jones. “Our very survival is in question.”

Students enter the program as early as the seventh grade and continue through professional school graduation with access to extensive counseling, tutoring, mentoring and professional test prep courses.

“We’ve already laid off all part-time support staff members and eliminated our very popular Weekend Tutorial Academy,” Jones said. “We’ve also been forced to charge fees for a number of programs, which violates our program’s guiding mission and spirit.”

The CAHMCP program has operated on the IIT campus since 1979 serving as an intellectual “pipeline,” helping more than 700 minority students prepare for careers as doctors, veterinarians and nurses. Another 300 participants are presently enrolled in medical and dental schools throughout Illinois and across the country at a time when minority medical professional school enrollments are in a decline.

Several hundred graduates and current participants of the CAHMCP program are expected to attend the forum and will have the opportunity to offer personal appeals to restore funding. Many CAHMCP “graduates” are currently in medical, dental and other doctorate requiring practices in urban centers throughout the State of Illinois.
Along with Minority Caucus members, Terry Nunn, senior associate director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education is expected to attend. Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, Rep. Mike Madigan (D-Chicago), and State Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Emil Jones (D-14th Dist.), have also been invited.

Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting technological university awarding degrees in the sciences, mathematics and engineering, as well as architecture, psychology, design, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum prepares the university’s 6,200 students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex and culturally diverse global workplace.