Impact of the California state budget on medical education

One question on my mind while interviewing at UCSD was how the California state budget woes could impact my medical education. This question was partly addressed by the dean's opening presentation. Before the budget deadlock, the School of Medicine was set to break ground on a new medical training facility in January 2009. That of course did not happen. It's unclear, now, when construction will begin. How does that impact me? Minimally, I would guess. Even if the new medical training facility were finished on schedule, I would be well into my clinical years by the time it opened.

I also asked this question to my second interviewer. "It'll affect the faculty more than the students," he said. There's a hiring freeze in effect, which means that we can expect the status quo until it's lifted. "The status quo here isn't all that bad." Dr. YYY also said that the hiring freeze will impact the School of Pharmacology since it is new and growing. The thought occurred to me that medical students take Principles of Pharmacology in the first year alongside pharmacology students.

These are definitely issues to be aware of, but when it comes down to whether my medical education might suffer because of the economy or state budget issues, I'm not all that concerned.