Daily News

Elms, WNEU College of Pharmacy
 Forge Admissions Partnership

CHICOPEE, SPRINGFIELD — A new linkage agreement between Elms College and Western New England College of Pharmacy will make it easier for Elms students to forge a career in pharmacy.

Elms College’s Janet Williams, professor of Biology, and WNE College of Pharmacy’s Evan Robinson, dean and associate provost for Academic Affairs, formalized the link between the two colleges by signing the agreement on the Elms campus. Going forward, qualified Elms students will be guaranteed admission interviews for WNE College of Pharmacy.

“Having a college of pharmacy in the vicinity of Elms College is a wonderful pathway for our students because a lot of our students are local. This will give them opportunities to not only get their education in pharmacy, but also possibly continue to practice in the area,” Williams said.

The agreement will directly impact healthcare in Western Mass. by helping to keep pharmacy students and graduates in the area, where they can work to improve the lives of local residents.

“One of the reasons an agreement like this makes so much sense and is so practical is that, when you look at where individuals want to practice healthcare, they always say, ‘I want to be local.’ Well, local isn’t where the school necessarily is — local is the hometown and the heart,” Robinson said. “If we can get Springfield-area students to stay in the Springfield area and be pharmacists, I think we’ve got a much better chance of trying to impact some of the care issues that are going on right in our yards. We need students to stay. We need to retain them in Western Massachusetts.”

Elms currently has a range of agreements in dozens of programs with more than six institutions throughout the region.