Faculty leaders at the University of Illinois' flagship campus have approved a plan to create a new medical school.
The Urbana-Champaign campus' Academic Senate voted Monday to approve the plan to build a small, engineering-centered medical school.
The plan still needs further approvals from faculty across all three university campuses and a recommendation from university President Robert Easter. He is also reviewing a competing plan proposed by the existing, Chicago-based College of Medicine to open a new biomedical research institute. And ultimately university trustees will have the final say.
A new medical school at the Urbana-Champaign campus would include engineering and technology in medical training. It would be independent of the College of Medicine and its regional campuses in Peoria, Rockford and Urbana.
