I checked our archives and The Sun has given only passing notice to the establishment of the nation's first pharmacy school on the campus of an all-women's college. So allow me to offer a little more attention to the subject: This bit of academic history is being made on North Charles Street in Baltimore. Nearly 500 students applied for the 70 openings in the inaugural class of the College of Notre Dame of Maryland's School of Pharmacy, according to Theresa Wiseman, who handles communications for the college. Orientation takes place August 19 through 21, and -- badda-bing -- the first day of classes is August 24. Who knew?

"Pharmacy is a hot, growing field," Wiseman reports in an e-mail. "Starting salaries are $100,000. There’s a shortage of pharmacists nationwide, one that is expected to grow significantly in the years to come. The former dean at the University of Maryland predicted a shortage of 157,000 pharmacists by the year 2020."

Notre Dame's four-year program will "provide a distinctive focus on leadership development and women’s health care across the lifespan."  Anne Y.F. Lin, the former dean of Midwestern University College of Pharmacy in Arizona, is the school's first dean. The school has been three years in the making, with the college's board of trustees voting unanimously to submit a proposal to the Maryland Higher Education Commission in October 2006. The MHEC approved the school in March 2007, and the college has been building faculty ever since.

Here's the home page of the new pharmacy school.