UF community health and family medicine department administrative offices come "home"

November isn't here yet, but the University of Florida's department of community health and family medicine is enjoying a homecoming of sorts - its administrative offices have returned to the UF Health Science Center campus after nine years off-site.

The move, to a remodeled suite on the first floor of the Medical Sciences Building, will give medical students better access to the offices for conferences and other needs, said R. Whit Curry, Jr., M.D., a professor and chairman of the department.

"It's also easier (for us) to talk to colleagues," Curry said. "I think we'll have a little more presence in the medical school just by virtue of being here."

The department's Program in Bioethics, Law and Medical Professionalism will relocate nearby in late October, said Judy Walch, the department's associate director of health administration. Some department faculty already have offices in the Medical Sciences Building, but many are located off-campus.

In 1994, Curry and the administrative staff relocated from the Health Science Center campus to the 1329 Building several blocks away, a temporary measure that lasted longer than expected due to a shortage of office space.

Early this year, UF College of Medicine Dean C. Craig Tisher, M.D., initiated the move back, using space vacated by the College of Health Professions as it relocated to the new Health Professions/Nursing/Pharmacy Complex.

The department's new physical address is 1600 S.W. Archer Rd., Suite N- 107, Gainesville, FL 32610 - 3001; mailing address is P.O. Box 100237, Gainesville, FL 32610 - 0237; administrative telephone number is 352 - 273 - 5138; Curry's telephone number is 352 - 273 - 5159.