News & Updates
Complex provides housing for students at Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine.
The housing complex for Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine students is officially open.
Community leaders, elected officials and school supporters gathered Monday, Sept. 22, to cut the ribbon on the Meritus Commons complex, as well as to reveal the names of the buildings.
“This is a naming ceremony as much as a ribbon-cutting,” said Dave Lehr, MSOM chief operating officer and Meritus Health chief strategy officer. “We are here to recognize the six people and organizations who have given their time, talent and treasure to make Meritus Commons and the Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine a reality.”
Buildings in the complex will be named for:
- The Rev. Dr. Stuart Dunnan, chair of the MSOM board of directors
- The Alice Virginia and David W. Fletcher Foundation
- Mr. and Mrs. Howard “Blackie” Bowen
- Chintamaneni Choudari, M.D., a member of the MSOM board
- James Stojak, chair of the Meritus Health board of directors
- Middletown Valley Bank
Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller and U.S. Rep. April McClain Delaney were among the speakers at the event who noted the steps Meritus Health took to provide housing for its new students, given the limited housing resources in Washington County.
“Here in Hagerstown, you go big or you go home,” Miller said. “And with this medical school and this student housing, Meritus is definitely going big.”
They also remarked on how MSOM is addressing the need for more physicians in Maryland and across the country.
“This is a model for the whole country,” Delaney said. “You are setting the example for how we are going to find more doctors for our rural communities.”
In addition, there are benefits to MSOM students, such as on-campus housing that allows them to walk to the D.M. Bowman Academic Hall, physician practices in Robinwood Professional Center and Meritus Medical Center.
The on-campus housing also means MSOM students are spending their money in Maryland and not neighboring states.
But most importantly, the students will become part of a rural community and develop relationships that will result in them practicing in our community or another rural community in Maryland.
The $90 million complex includes 340 one- and two-bedroom student apartments, a clubhouse, commons area, pickleball and basketball courts and dog park. There are almost 90 students living on campus.
As has been noted by many, Maryland has a housing crisis characterized by the availability of affordable housing, and Meritus leaned in and built housing to support the medical students.
The housing complex supports MSOM, which was created to help alleviate the shortage of physicians locally and nationally. The school welcomed its first class of more than 90 students this summer, and future classes at MSOM will number 180 students each.
To learn more about Meritus Commons, visit https://commons.msom.org.