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COLORADO: Retiring Chancellor In A Word: Fitzsimons By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News November 24, 2004 The University of Colorado Health Sciences Center's $2.3 billion move to Aurora will define Dr. James Shore's six-year tenure as chancellor, for better or worse, say observers. Shore, 64, announced he will retire no later than Oct. 31 to spend more time with his wife and grandchildren. He announced it now to give CU time to find his successor. Shore championed the move from Denver to the Fitzsimons campus in Aurora, which should be completed by 2008, seven years earlier than first forecast. Administrators praised Shore's stewardship of the move, saying it allows CU a chance to compete with Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, UCLA and the like. When CU acquired 217 acres surrounding the shut-down Fitzsimons Army Hospital in 1996, it gave the university a rare opportunity: Build a health sciences center from the ground up, with the latest in technology and electronics, on real estate acquired for free. CU President Betsy Hoffman called Shore's work "an extraordinary success." Professors - the doctors, pharmacists, researchers and nurses who are making the move - aren't so sure. Many of them say the emphasis on the move, in the middle of a budget crisis, stole money from research programs. And that, they say, prompted more than a dozen top-notch doctors to take themselves and their programs elsewhere. "I've been concerned about the departure of many distinguished faculty over that issue," said Dr. Curt Freed, a nationally renowned Parkinson's disease researcher. He said departing doctors didn't leave because their individual salaries weren't high enough but because there wasn't enough money available to hire researchers and keep their labs up to date. Freed recently lost a key collaborator, radiology professor Kadar Parsad, who is going to a biotech company in California. Dr. Robert "Chip" Schooley, an expert in AIDS research and infectious diseases, is moving to the University of California at San Diego. Drs. Roy Jones and Elizabeth Schpall left for the Anderson Cancer Center in Houston; and Drs. Scott Berman and Peter McSweeney left for Denver's Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center, gutting CU's bone marrow program. "In a big university with so many great researchers, you always have people coming and going," Shore said. "But in the big picture, we've had a very fair balance" of recruiting new talent to replace the old. All six of the department chairmen hired in recent years have said the opportunities presented by the new Fitzsimons campus were major reasons why they came to Colorado, Shore said. CU officials in the late 1990s said the move to Fitzsimons would vault the school into the top 10 nationally. This year, U.S. News & World Report ranked CU's Medical School 31st best in research. But five of its specialties ranked in the top 20 nationwide: respiratory disorders in ninth place, kidney disease in 11th, gynecology at 15th, geriatrics at 17th and hormonal disorders at 18th. CU's School of Medicine fell from 19th to 22nd last year in total grants awarded by National Institutes of Health. Professors say Shore has had a tough job, made harder by budget crunches. "He was given an enormous amount of things to do, at a very difficult time to make everything work successfully," said Carla Vandenburg, assistant professor in the School of Pharmacy. "He made the commitment for the move to Fitzsimons, then 9/11 came and the economy went downhill," she said. Professors urged him to slow down the move, so it wouldn't happen on the back of existing programs. "He listened to us, but I'm not sure it changed his mind," she said. In 2002, Dean of Medicine Dr. Richard Krugman fired Dr. Robert Schrier, who as chairman of medicine had voiced faculty concerns over the move to the Fitzsimons campus. Professors signed a petition asking for Schrier's reinstatement. Department chairmen and Shore backed Krugman. Schrier didn't get his job back. Freed said Shore "should be commended" for carrying the campus through difficult financial and political negotiations over Fitzsimons. Shore has been chancellor of the CU Health Sciences Center since 1998. This year, when CU's Denver campus merged with the Health Sciences Center, Shore was named chancellor of both campuses. Hoffman said Shore "has been a remarkable leader" for two decades at CU, saying he was invaluable in bringing about the consolidation of the two campuses. Shore will continue as a tenured professor of medicine at CU, but plans to spend more time at his Wyoming ranch. CU Regent Jerry Rutledge said Shore has demonstrated tremendous leadership and championed "the missions of education, research and patient care." Shore is credited with helping convince Children's Hospital to move to the Fitzsimons campus. His long-standing passion for the health of American Indians helped inspire the Nighthorse Campbell Native Health Building at Fitzsimons. Shore has authored more than 100 scientific papers. He and his wife, Christine, have two children and three grandchildren. "We will miss him greatly," Hoffman said. 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