Charles Drew University cuts 10 percent of faculty, staff

The medical university that used to be affiliated with King/Harbor Hospital in South L.A. is cutting staff jobs and salaries to make ends meet. KPCC's Patricia Nazario has more on what that means for its students.

Patricia Nazario: Charles Drew University enrolls about 325 students. The school focuses on urban-based medicine and trains nurses, physician assistants, and radiologists.

The teaching hospital nearest this campus was King/Harbor Medical Center, a trouble-plagued institution that served one of the region's poorest areas. Los Angeles County supervisors closed it a year and a half ago.

Susan Kelly: It meant, as we're no longer a teaching hospital from December, 2006.

Nazario: That's Drew University president Susan Kelly. She says that when L.A. County severed its ties with the school, the institution lost millions of dollars that used to pay for hundreds of student residencies.

Kelly: We are certainly not over the loss of the hospital. The community isn't and the university isn't. But, we were making some headway on rebuilding and then the wheels fell off the international economy.

Nazario: Charles Drew started building a nursing school on campus and opened an urgent care clinic a few blocks away. But Kelly says donations started drying up amid the economic downtown. To cope, she says, the school will cut about 40 jobs and reduce staff salaries and travel.

Kelly: Well, I'm definitely concerned about that.

Nazario: Second-year radiology student Errol Thompson worries his student loans will dry up next.

Errol Thompson: If we don't have the money to pay, they can withhold you from coming to your next semester. That could be a problem. I want to be in and out in two years. I don't have two years and six months to give to a program. I need to get in and get out.

Nazario: University president Susan Kelly promises to keep financial resources intact for the students – and increase them, if she can.

She says she realizes these tough times translate into fewer internships and part-time jobs for her students. She's planning a question and answer forum soon so students may express their concerns about Drew University's prospects – and their own.