The Marquette Tribune campus news since 1916
Volume 109, Number 6
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
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Med Lab Science braces for closure
Photo courtesy of Valerie Everard-Gigot
The Medical Laboratory Science program's Class of 2026 poses outside of Schroeder Complex. The Class of 2029 will be the last ever to graduate from the program.
The program's last class will graduate in 2029 By Lance Schulteis
lance.schulteis@marquette.edu
W
hen Erik Munson got to class on Sept. 26, he was dressed in all-black. The date had been circled on his syllabus since the start of the year. While not a funeral, it was a day of mourning for Munson, associate professor of Medical Laboratory Science, who was joined by a few of his students in wearing clothes devoid of color and emotion. Sept. 26 was the one-year anniversary of Munson being told his program,
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Medical Laboratory Science, was on the university’s chopping block. Despite defending the program all year, including at an Academic Senate meeting where the matter was discussed, those in the program were sent a letter over the summer to announce its termination taking effect in 2029. The closure was attributed to $500,000 in cost savings for the university from 2026-2031 as part of Marquette’s plan to cut $31 million by 2031. The university also cited a decline in program enrollment, though those statistics were disputed at the senate meeting. “It’s been very hard, mentally and psychologically, to go through something
like this,” Munson said. Medical laboratory scientists are responsible for the reading and analysis of tests taken in doctors’ offices — from blood panels to urine tests to cancer screenings. In 2019, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention cited 70% of medical decisions as dependent on laboratory tests, which can be done by professionals trained in laboratory science or other science degrees. “I have diagnosed patients with leukemia before the doctor knows about it,” Beth Thelen, a Marquette program graduate and medical laboratory scientist at Aurora West Allis Medical Center, said. “For those couple seconds, you’re looking at a
slide with all these white blood cells on it and it’s just you and a microscope that know that this patient has cancer.” It’s a role that Valerie Everard-Gigot, Medical Laboratory Science chair and program director, calls the “heart of every diagnosis,” linking patients to their physicians despite being unseen in the process. “[It’s] that idea of cura personalis,” Thelen said. “You’re caring for the whole patient. You might not see them, but these results are going to be life-changing for them even though they might never know who was behind the scope.” That unseen link is currently experiencing a nationwide shortage. On Sept. 23, the House
of Representatives introduced a bipartisan bill to address the personnel shortage, with an estimate that laboratories nationwide are facing vacancy rates of up to 25%. Sue Johnson, director of clinical education at Versiti, said many laboratories in Wisconsin and Illinois are short-staffed. “You can hire people with, for example, a biology degree or a biomedical sciences degree to learn how to do a test, but they don’t know the background,” Johnson said. Chris Ladwig, a senior in the College of Health Sciences, said terminating Marquette’s program doesn’t just affect the quantity of available lab
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SPORTS.......................................................5 OPINIONS..................................................9 FUN & GAMES......................................10 A&E................................................................11
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