The Story of our Health Message

Consolidation at Loma Linda

The 1953 decision by college trustees and the Fall Council to continue operation of the School of Medicine on two campuses was not to be final. The most desirable solution at the time, it nevertheless left unsolved difficult problems of teaching staff and physical facilities, as the administration found it necessary to divide its limited resources between two campuses which duplicated each other in many ways. SHM 410.3

Study of the consolidation question continued at every level, and two important developments led to a new decision in 1962. Reaching maturity and acceptance among medical educators was a trend toward accenting selection and quality rather than quantity of clinical patients seen by medical students; this modified the once-imperative demand for clinical instruction in metropolitan Los Angeles. At the same time, the inland southern California area surrounding Loma Linda was experiencing phenomenal growth, leading university officials to believe that the population was sufficient to support a strong clinical teaching program on the Loma Linda campus. SHM 410.4

Prayerfully the university trustees and the 1962 Fall Council weighed the educational advantages to be gained from integration of science and clinical teaching through all four years of instruction on one campus against the enormous capital expenditure that would be required for consolidation at either Los Angeles or Loma Linda. Their decision was inevitable and final: the matter of cost could not be allowed to deter the educational strengthening of the School of Medicine. The school would develop an integrated, four-year teaching program in a new medical center at Loma Linda. SHM 411.1