Category | News

$4.5 million granted for new Health Sciences Building

Published on March 31, 2009 by Heather Cook

The Board of Regents has granted $4.5 million in order to pay for the construction of a Health Sciences Building and new equipment for the Wellstar College of Health and Human Services.

Construction of the Health Sciences Building was approved by the BOR back in 2007, and the groundbreaking will start in April. The building is scheduled to be completed by December 2010.

“It will be a great advantage to have most of the faculty, students and staff of the Wellstar College of Health and Human Services, for the first time in recent years, housed in one central location,” said Laurie Tis, associate dean of the WellStar College of Health and Human Services. “Any time you can have students and faculty from all of the programs interacting together, it’s a great educational opportunity, especially for the students.”

The new building will contain the necessary lab equipment to further nursing students’ education.

“The students will benefit with the new labs, larger classrooms, new larger and more numerous computer labs.  We will finally be able to accommodate all of our students.  For some programs, it will be the first time they will actually have classes, labs and computer labs in their own building,” said Tis.

“We will have a tremendous amount of space devoted to nursing labs with human patient simulators to provide experiences in caring for critical ‘patients’ before they go to the hospital to work with really sick people,” said David Bennett, associate dean of the WellStar College of Health and Human Services. “For the Health, Physical Education and Sport Science Department, the new biomechanics labs and exercise science labs provide a great deal of space for research and student involvement in understanding human physical performance.  For the Social Work and Human Services Department, there is an innovative room that allows students to observe and learn interviewing and counseling skills through one-way glass.”

The building will house two 150-seat classrooms, two 120-seat classrooms, four computer labs and a 300-seat auditorium, among other classrooms and offices. The building will also contain student-friendly areas.

“We have placed spacious and well-furnished student lounges/study areas in the front of the building overlooking the plaza between the HSB and the Dining Hall,” said Bennett. “Extra electrical outlets for laptops have been placed in areas where students will congregate and the building will be fully blanketed for wireless access.  Nursing and social work graduate students will have their own lounge area and mailroom.  At faculty request and in consideration of students, a small, private room has been devoted to breastfeeding moms who need to pump their breasts and store milk.  There will be a large, well-appointed auditorium for classes, seminars or professional presentations.”

“It has been very exciting for me to be involved in the planning of the building from the very beginning, so I cannot wait to see what has only been a two-dimensional design to become real,” said Bennett.