The University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine invites
the public to celebrate its 100th anniversary at a 4-mile run/walk on Sunday,
Sept. 8, at its Student Life Center on campus. Registration is at 8 a.m.
and the run/walk will start at 9 a.m.
The event, which celebrates the College of Medicine joining the University
of Nebraska in 1902, will begin at the UNMC Student Life Center located
at 40th and Emile Streets, follow the Field Club Trail south to Vinton
St., then return.
Cost of the event is $10 for the general public and UNMC faculty and
staff, or $5 for UNMC students, which includes T-shirt, breakfast with
the Pancake Man and bagels, fruit and juice. Deadline for registration
is Sept. 3. Late registrations will be an additional $3. For more information,
call 559-4385 or toll free 1-888-725-8664.
Since 1902 when the college joined the university, 11,167 students have
graduated from the UNMC College of Medicine, with 8,315 earning doctor
of medicine degrees and the remaining earning bachelors and masters degrees
in medicine, as well as other degrees. More than half the physicians currently
practicing in Nebraska graduated from UNMC.
At the turn of the century, pneumonia was usually fatal and insulin,
antibiotics and treatment for high blood pressure didn’t exist. Physicians
donated their time teaching in the gas-lit College of Medicine and students
spent their first two years in Lincoln and the second two in Omaha at the
medical school campus at 12th and Pierce Streets — home today to the downtown
post office.
Today, full-time faculty members on the 73-acre campus in Omaha teach
students how to treat pneumonia and high blood pressure. Tuberculosis is
no longer a major threat and students receive more clinical experience
than their 20th century counterparts.
The College of Medicine has a long and distinguished history of contributions
to research and education, said Robert Wigton, M.D., associate dean of
the College of Medicine and professor of internal medicine. “This centennial
is an opportunity to reflect on the College’s rich history and on the importance
of its becoming part of the University of Nebraska in 1902. This is an
occasion to celebrate the past as well as to look forward to the next 100
years.”