Today, the school is a fully independent institution, operating under the direction of the Oregon State System of Higher Education.

[2] University president Joseph H. Wythe was one of the people credited with starting the school, but left due to internal faculty strife.

[5] Wythe had attended Philadelphia College of Medicine and graduated in 1850 before serving in the Civil War.

[5] In 1880 the College of Medicine moved to Portland, but returned to the Salem campus in 1895 in a dispute over privileges at the hospital.

[8] On September 1, 1913, the College of Medicine officially merged with the University of Oregon's medical school.