Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Morning Rounds - Liberty Medical School

Hello MSSNY members,

This will be the first article of what will hopefully be a regular occurrence here. We're calling it "Morning Rounds" and its your chance to talk up about some of the more interesting events going on in the world of medicine. Feel free to comment below, strike up debate, and share your thoughts.

Liberty University is a private Evangelical Christian university located in Lynchberg, VA. Liberty's annual enrollment is around 72,000 students, 12,000 of whom are residential students and 60,000+ studying through Liberty University Online. It was founded as Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971 by Jerry Falwell, a controversial preacher and conservative figure. Liberty University is probably best known for its publicly stated preference towards biology faculty who espouse the "young earth creationism" philosophy and its possession of an allegedly 6,000 year old dinosaur fossil which would place dinosaurs as contemporaries of modern humans and dispute much of evolutionary theory.

Liberty University undergoing work to have a medical school founded by 2013. When this was first announced there was a good deal of discontent within the scientific community for a school such as this opening a medical school. Recently the school has received a huge amount of funding from the Virginia Tobacco Commission, which has further incensed people over the school. Some source material below:

What are your thoughts on this school being green lighted?