LEBANON - Students and faculty at the new College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Northwest will be active members of the community, according to Dirk Foley.

"They'll come and see you. They will use the restaurants, the grocery stores ... they will be socially active," he said.

The executive director for the Northwest Track Program at Western University, which monitors educational development in the northwest, spoke to a crowd of around 40 business people Wednesday at the Mid-Willamette Valley Small Business Network meeting in Lebanon.

The new medical school will be jointly run by Pomona-based Western University and Samaritan Health Services and is scheduled to open in 2011. Construction is under way at the campus site across from Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital on Highway 20.

By 2015, up to 60 faculty, 400 students and 45 staff members are expected to be on campus full time. Foley said it will be a community-oriented campus.

"The majority of our students will be from the region and they'll know the region," he said. "They enjoy the same things you enjoy."

The campus will continue to grow, he said, adding students, faculty, staff and ultimately buildings. He said no housing is currently being built on campus, which means students and faculty will be looking for places to buy and rent.

Foley indicated that the college will add to the economic growth of Lebanon and Linn County.

"We want to use as many of the local services as we can," he said. "And where possible we want to hire locally."

The school is designed to to educate more Northwest students who will remain in the area.

"Historically the Northwest has had to import physicians," Foley said. "We're building an end component and then filling the pipeline."

The 50-acre campus could eventually add a hotel, retail shops and additional buildings. Included in the 55,000-square-foot main building will be a research facility, and Foley said future expansion opportunities would likely be available for Linn-Benton Community College.

Western officials will be in Lebanon again in November for a two-day retreat designed to create a comprehensive management plan for the school.

"We have a lot to learn," he said. "We need to listen to you and find out your needs. We're creating a pathway to the Northwest, not Southern California."