The following year, then-Texas Tech System Chancellor John T. Montford shared with the Board of Regents a vision for a full-fledged four-year medical school in El Paso to help alleviate a severe shortage of physicians in the area.

The addition of the first two years of the medical school would allow students from El Paso and nearby regions to complete their education near home, in hopes of retaining doctors in the area.

During the 2001 Texas Legislative Session (77th), the El Paso legislative delegation secured $40 million in tuition revenue bonds for the research facility, one of three buildings on the new campus, just a short walk from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center—as well as an $11 million clinic expansion project that took about two years, and added a third floor on the present TTUHSC El Paso Medical Center building.

By working together with TTUHSC, the Foundation would help meet the demand for physicians and provide the perfect environment for area students to improve their medical education, while contributing to the health of our region.

In 2003, Texas Governor Rick Perry visited the El Paso campus for a ceremonial signing of House Bill 28, article 10, which authorized Texas Tech to issue $45 million in tuition revenue bonds for the construction of a classroom/office building for a four-year medical school at the El Paso campus.

On December 9, 2003, the ground breaking for El Paso Medical Science Building I took place, and two years later in January 2006, a ribbon cutting followed.

These core classes are scientific principles of medicine; society, community and individual; medical skills; and a masters' colloquium.

Through this process the relevant anatomy, microbiology, biochemistry, as well as the other traditional subjects will be integrated into the cases presentations of the 120 clinical scenarios.