University President Michael Adams said plans to put a medical college on the site of the Navy Supply Corps School are on track.

In a meeting Wednesday with staff members from The Red & Black, Adams said officials are meeting to plan the college’s curriculum and funding, and he believes they will meet two deadlines.

“I think we have the support from the leadership” in state government, Adams said. “I believe we will prevail.”

Tom Jackson, vice president of public affairs, said officials are working to begin the first medical college classes in Athens in 2009. The classes will be a joint venture with the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, the state’s largest medical college.

Where classes will be held until University officials are able to obtain the Supply Corps School property in 2011 is yet to be determined, Jackson said.

The U.S. departments of Energy and Defense must approve before property can be transferred, he said. If both departments approve, the federal government will hand the property deed to the University, which in turn must meet a public benefit conveyance, Jackson said.

The conveyance requires the University to provide funds “to improve assistance to the homeless as identified by the community,” according to a reuse plan for the site dated July 10. The goal of a medical college in Athens, Jackson said, is to increase physicians in the state.

“The state has a critical shortage of physicians at this time, and that’s a need that we could help alleviate,” Jackson said. “We’re making good progress.”