Touro College of Dental Medicine this week began classes on the New York Medical College campus in Valhalla with 110 students enrolled at the first new dental school to open in the state in nearly half a century
The dental school, part of the Touro College and University System, received more than 2,100 applications for its inaugural class, according to Touro officials. It is the first dental school approved by the state Board of Regents since Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine opened in 1968.
The dental school”™s classrooms and training facilities will occupy space being renovated at 19 Skyline Drive, a vacant, 248,000-square-foot former IBM office building in nearby Hawthorne that New York Medical College acquired for $17.5 million in 2013. A $2.075 million grant from the New York State Higher Education Capital Matching Grant program is being used in renovations to the 100,000-square-foot dental school space.
Dr. Alan Kadish, president of Touro College and University System, in April said Touro would spend an estimated $25 million to $30 million for property acquisition and construction on Skyline Drive. He said Touro, in the third year of operation, plans to build a 132-chair community dental clinic occupying half of the dental school facility.
The founding dean of Touro College of Dental Medicine is Jay P. Goldsmith, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon and a former professor, program director and deputy chief in New York Medical College”™s dental medicine department.
