Issue link: https://kusm-wichita.uberflip.com/i/1545861
trimmed that amount to $210 million. "I think they were interested in giving us the whole $300 million but they just didn't have the budget," Minns said of state lawmakers. As a result, the school decided to keep its primary internal medicine and psychiatry clinics and their respective departments at its current location. Minns noted that the clinics' locations have certain advantages, including surface parking and proximity to many patients it serves. An expansion of the clinics are now a possibility. Once the new campus funding was approved, Minns and others visited similar shared campuses in Phoenix and Houston for ideas. As finalized, the plan here calls for WSU and WSU Tech to occupy the campus' first four floors, KU's medical and pharmacy schools to occupy floors six through eight, and the fifth floor to be shared. Getting to that point required many, many meetings and memos. "We've always had a cordial relationship with Wichita State but there was nothing formal about it," Minns said of the process. "Now we're going to be in the same building. There are lots of little details to work out." "It was time consuming," he said. "It's still time consuming. We're still having lots of meetings working out the details of how to move. There are still meetings about picking furniture and wall coverings. Once they started digging didn't mean that's the end of discussions." Tatpati's appointment was announced in April, 11 months after the new campus' groundbreaking. In addition to helping her assume all the in-school duties of the job, Minns said he's spent time "introducing her to the key people in town that we need to have good relationships with to maintain our research and educational mission. And trying to be a resource for her as she makes the transition." Minns' own transition to dean emeritus is the first step toward full retirement in June 2027. He'll leave behind a school that is both similar to and much different than the one he took over 13 years ago. KU Wichita retains a national reputation for producing family physicians who go on to practice in rural settings, routinely being ranked among the nation's top schools in that regard. "I would say that's an even stronger aspect of (the school)," Minns said. Also during his tenure, the pediatric and internal medicine departments expanded, the school's rural outreach extended to surgical and OB-GYN care, and KU Wichita became active in clinical trials. Becoming a four-year institution for all its students is another development that Minns considers significant for KU Wichita. "That's going to take some of the burden off of (students') families," he said. "It's difficult for the students who do two years in Kansas City to have to pick up and leave, pick up their families. Oftentimes, their spouses already have a job in Kansas City and moving here, they may not find the same job, the same income right away. We've never been able to guarantee that." Minns, noting that he's past the traditional retirement age, said he and his wife want to be able to travel and spend more time with family. He said he'll miss the students and his fellow employees and even the old but "comfortable" current campus. But he's excited about what's under construction downtown and looks forward to seeing medical students start their careers there about the time his own ends. "I feel like maybe it's time for new blood to come in, new ideas," he said, adding with a chuckle, "Sometimes you gotta go." L-R: Akinlolu Ojo, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, executive dean of KU School of Medicine; Matthias Salathe, M.D., vice chancellor of research at KUMC; Garold Minns, M.D., KU School of Medicine-Wichita dean (emeritus); Douglas Girod, M.D., KU chancellor; participate in the groundbreaking ceremony for the Wichita Biomedical Campus on May 7, 2024. 31