RANDY METCALF/Arizona Daily Wildcat Medical technology senior Colleen Vasquez examines blood samples yesterday during her clinical immuno-hematology lab at the School of Health Professions. Dr. Ray Woosley, vice president for health sciences, said unless the program receives more funding, the university will not be able to justify keeping it open. He expects to make a decision on terminating the program next week.

About 200 students who have already taken up to two-and-a-half years of science courses to qualify for the medical technology program are fearing budget cuts may force the department's closure before they actually enter the program.

That would leave those students searching for different majors, but students who have already qualified for the program would be allowed to finish it, said clinical instructor Marlis Dinning.

It's now up to Dr. Ray Woosley, vice president for health sciences, to decide on the program's fate.

"It looks very grim," Woosley said yesterday. "I haven't given up and it's a very difficult decision to make. Unless we find a savior for the program, we're not going to be able to justify keeping it going."

He expects to make a decision on the program's future next week, and says that concerned staff and students should realize it hasn't been made yet.

"Someone has been saying the decision to terminate the program has been made and that's just not right," Woosley said, adding that he told only the department's faculty and staff that he was running low on options.

Faculty and staff in the Medical Technology Program said Woosley told them a different story in meetings where they say he told them the program was facing closure.

"(The pre-majors) are very concerned and they have a legitimate right to be concerned," said program director Harold Potter. "They have paid tuition for three years and they have a lot of time and effort invested in their education. It's like the rug is being pulled out beneath them."

After taking almost nothing but science classes and doing up to seven hours of homework a night, pre-medical technology junior Kathryn Miller was ready to enter the actual major this year.

"I have no life," Miller said. "I've been busting my ass trying to get into the program and now it's being shut down."

But many students remain unaware that the program is on the verge of being cut, Miller said.

She herself only found out by accident a week ago when a program adviser mentioned it, she said.

The university is still allowing incoming freshmen to declare pre-medical technology as their major, Potter said.

"Freshmen are being accepted on false pretenses," Miller said. "It's false advertising."

The UA still shows medical technology on its online list of programs offered to incoming freshman.

However, the directors and instructors of the program have been told not to accept incoming majors for spring semester, Dinning said.

Potter said he is not processing student applications for spring because Woosley had given him the idea that the program wouldn't be able to accept any new majors.

Registration starts at the end of October.

The program, which is a part of the Arizona Health Sciences Center, costs $370,000 a year and graduates about 20 students annually.

In October 2001, the program was accredited for seven years, the highest accreditation a program can receive, Dinning said.

"They found no deficiencies with the program whatsoever," she said.

The program's end, if it comes, would happen at an inopportune moment for Arizona's medical community.

"Right now, the shortage of medical technicians surpasses that of nurses," Potter said. "Without the 20 graduates we produce (yearly), it will compound the shortage in the state. You cannot run a modern hospital without medical laboratory services ÷ go ask any practicing physician."

Medical technicians are responsible for the lab work that helps doctors with diagnosis and treatment.

"We are a really good value for a buck," clinical instructor Sally Littau added. "I really feel sorry for the health community if this goes under."

Until May 6, the medical technology workers had no idea the program's future was in jeopardy. In a meeting that day, Woosley told department employees that they would be out of a job if private funds could not be obtained.

The department looked to Arizona hospitals for help in an attempt to keep the program running, but they had no money to spare, clinical instructor Dinning said.

"We were told to get support from the community ÷ and not just verbal support, but monetary support," Dinning said. "We tried to do that, but the hospitals are strapped for money as well. We got lots of verbal support · but that doesn't fill the budget need."

In a Sept. 19 meeting, Woosley told medical technician workers that the paperwork to eliminate the program would be submitted and that the department could not accept a spring semester class, Potter said.

"We, as a faculty, certainly had the impression that we were not to go forward with admissions," Potter said.

Woosley said that he did not make those statements and that no paperwork had been filed.

"Harold Potter is wrong," he said. "That decision has not been made."

The medical technology major involves three semesters of 19 credits as well as a six-credit summer internship. Students already accepted into the major this semester will finish it in December 2003, when the program will be phased out completely.

The department's five faculty members will lose their jobs if the program closes, unless UA South in Sierra Vista decides to take over funding it.

"If there's an opportunity· I would take the program and see what we can do." said Randall Groth, the associative vice president and dean of UA South. "We're risk takers."

However, Groth has yet to develop a financial plan to keep the program afloat.

"I can't tell you the probability of (UA South) finding the money to help us out," Potter said.

The only plan that would work would need to provide long-term funding, Woosley said.

Miller, who has prepared for three years to enter the program, has already starting looking elsewhere for a new major.

"I am looking into (the microbiology major), once I find out for sure the axe is going to be dropped on this," Miller said. "The way this is being handled is just wrong. They are not concerned at all about the students."