Touro College Brings Medicine to Harlem

Billing itself as the first medical school to open in New York State in 30 years, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine is celebrating its launch today in Harlem, where it will occupy a renovated building that sat vacant for decades across the street from the historic Apollo Theater.

The new medical school, which occupies the former Blumstein's department store building, where Martin Luther King Jr. was stabbed in 1958, is designed to encourage youth in the neighborhood to become medical professionals and to practice in their community.

"There was a need for a medical school in New York City to serve minority populations, and we thought that a college of osteopathic medicine along a key commercial corridor would do a lot to galvanize the business environment," the president of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, Kenneth Knuckles, said. The development corporation gave a $4.7 million loan to Touro College to encourage the school to open in the neighborhood, which has been designated by the federal government as underserved by medical professionals.

The medical school this morning is welcoming an incoming class of 253 medical students to campus with a ceremony at the Apollo Theater. Rep. Charles Rangel, a Democrat of Harlem, is expected to address to the incoming class.

By expanding into Harlem, Touro College, which enrolls about 25,000 students at 29 campuses across the globe, is joining a developing community.

"Never has there been more activity than there is at this moment," Mr. Knuckles, who serves as the co-chairman of the City Planning Commission, said.

Some commercial rents there are going for than $100 a square foot, according to Mr. Knuckles, which is comparable to many rents in Midtown Manhattan. The City Planning Commission is also considering a proposal to rezone 125th Street for residential use, and for higher density development, he said.

Faculty and students at the new medical school also have plans to partner with local public schools to promote an interest in science among young students in Harlem.

"If a student says, ‘I want to practice on Park Avenue,' that's not someone who should be going to our school," the founding dean of the school, Martin Diamond, said in an interview.

Touro College, which today serves a large minority population in New York, was established in 1970 in order to promote Jewish heritage in higher education. The Harlem medical school will follow a Jewish calendar, serve kosher food, and will not hold classes on Friday evenings or Saturdays.