Leveling a city block in downtown Camden to build a "health sciences" campus, the Rowan University/Rutgers-Camden Board of Governors has begun flexing its muscle, making clear the scope of its mission and powers.

Less than two years since its creation, the board also has funded diabetes research and steered federal grant money to training and jobs program.

The most tangible evidence is the demolition work on the block diagonally across from the Walter Rand Transportation Center - a block that the joint board has nearly finished acquiring, in part using eminent domain.

From Broadway west to Fifth Street and from Martin Luther King Boulevard south to Stevens Street, the joint board has purchased or agreed to purchase most of the properties, including empty lots, abandoned buildings, and a small strip of restaurants and storefronts that attract steady business.

When the last pieces are acquired - one property owner is still negotiating, and the board is using eminent domain on some empty lots with absentee owners - the board will demolish the existing buildings to put up a Joint Health Sciences Center and related buildings.

The state has given preliminary approval for $50 million in funding for the four-story, 65,000-square-foot project. Rutgers-Camden will move its computational biology program there, and Rowan has agreed to house its planned doctorate of occupational therapy program there.

Read more about the future health sciences campus here: http://mobile.philly.com/beta?wss=/philly/news&id=361747911