SALEM – The Kent State University Salem campus will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for its new health sciences wing from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Friday in the campus gymnasium on state Route 45.
The two-phase, $8.5 million project involves turning the 17,000-square-foot gymnasium into a state-of-the-art medical learning facility. Funding for construction will come from private, state and university sources.
Dr. Jeffrey Nolte, Dean of the Columbiana County KSU campuses, will speak about the facility and the positive impact it will have on the community. Other community leaders and students also are scheduled to speak.
Last year’s entire full-time KSU-Salem nursing faculty gifted more than $25,000 towards the new state-of-the-art learning facility. Current nursing faculty donations will be used to build a nursing advising center featuring faculty offices, common areas and conference rooms. Collectively, faculty and staff have raised almost $70,000 for the project.
“The advising center is important to the faculty to help recruit and support students,” said Mary Lou Ferranto, program coordinator and assistant professor. “The faculty discussed assuming responsibility for one piece of the project, and this is what we came up with.”
“It’s fantastic the nursing department has shown leadership in their philanthropy,” Dr. Nolte said. “They should be an example for the university.”
Out of the 1,300 students enrolled at Salem, nearly one-third major in health science programs. According to Matthew Butts, director of institutional advancement for the Salem Campus, the nursing program and radiology and imaging program provide students with an excellent education despite cramped quarters.
“Our programs have grown tremendously since this building was built, and now we’re just out of space,” Butts said.
Even in the current learning environment, 94 percent of Salem’s nursing students passed the National Council Licensure Examination last year (compared to a national average of 84 percent). For the last two years, 100 percent of the radiology and imaging students found work within three months of graduating. The national average is six months.
Butts believes the building will not only help student, but it will impact the community.
“This expansion will allow our students the opportunity to continue to receive the excellent education Kent State prides itself on providing,” he said. “Seeing as 89 percent of our graduates remain in the region, this translates into higher income for our community members and a better quality of life for everyone.”
Construction of the new health sciences wing will begin in spring 2009 and be completed during the 2009-2010 academic year.
