Four-year free ride for inaugural UT Tyler medical students

TYLER — The Tyler-based R.W. Fair Foundation is donating $4 million so students in the inaugural class at UT Tyler’s Medical School can get free tuition for all four years of study. The announcement from the foundation’s Bob Garrett came Wednesday in a news conference streamed live by our news partner KETK. 40 students will be in the class. Garrett said, “This gift provides us with the rare opportunity to combine all the pillars of our mission into a single focus that will, first, help address some of the worst measurable health outcomes in our state, particularly in rural East Texas.” Garrett was introduced by UT Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife, who termed the announcement “incredible.” Eltife thanked the foundation on behalf of the Regents — noting, “To our knowledge, we have never had a medical school launched in the state of Texas that received legislative approval in the very first session requested.”