ULM’s pharmacy school was approved by the Louisiana State Board of Education on Aug. 11, 1956. Then, in July 2005, the school became the first and only College of Pharmacy of its kind in Louisiana.

The College of Pharmacy at ULM restricted admittance to only ULM graduate students until Sept. 12, 2019.

But as of this past week, an agreement between ULM and Centenary College in Shreveport was signed. The agreement gave Centenary students the opportunity to interview for admittance to the ULM College of Pharmacy to obtain their doctorate in pharmacy if they present the required prerequisites for the program.

ULM president Nick J. Bruno met with Centenary president Dr. Christopher L. Holoman to establish the agreement between the two schools.

“Thank you Dr. Holoman for your leadership at Centenary, and all those who put this memorandum of understanding together that will provide more opportunities for Centenary students to move toward our College of Pharmacy,” Bruno said.

Dr. H. Glenn Anderson said the opportunities are being put into effect by both parties.

“It’s part of our vision to allow any student who has a goal, a desire, to be a pharmacist to provide pathways for them to do that,” said Anderson, the dean of the College of Pharmacy.

Anderson said that the bridging of the two schools will provide lasting benefits beyond the students and will be noticed across all of Louisiana.

“Our college has a mission to, one, produce the best pharmacists that we can for our state, and two, do everything we can to improve the health of Louisianians,” Anderson said.

For a student from Centenary College to pursue a ULM doctorate in pharmacy, they must provide a transcript of all the prerequisite courses designed for the program. They must also have a 3.5 GPA at Centenary for all the outline courses and have earned at least a 50 on the pharmacy college admissions test.

Much excitement surrounded the new agreement, as Bruno opened a welcoming invitation to all the new potential students applying to the College of Pharmacy.

“We look forward to having Centenary students on ULM’s campus very soon,” Bruno said.