Budget delays UC Riverside medical school plans - Michelle Mitchell, My Desert

The opening of University of California, Riverside's medical school will be delayed one year, school officials announced Wednesday. The state budget approved on Tuesday does not include funding for the school, which has been touted as part of the solution to the problem of disparate and sometimes insufficient availability of medical care in the Coachella Valley. Officials are now looking to open the school in the fall of 2013, provided the necessary funding is secured and accreditation is approved. “While deeply disappointing, I am not disillusioned by this outcome because it is occurring in a very difficult economic time,” UCR Chancellor Timothy White said in a statement.