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College of Nursing and Public Health offices and instruction space, including ultramodern labs, will be located in the Nexus Building and Welcome Center wing nearest Swirbul Library (left in the architectural rendering above), while the Office of University Admissions and the Welcome Center will be in the wing nearest Levermore Hall (right). —ÌýDesign by Ballinger.

By James Forkan

One of the highlights of the 70th anniversary year of ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ’s School of Nursing was the Fall 2013 groundbreaking for a new building for the newly renamed —and much more.

Construction costs for the Nexus Building and Welcome Center are estimated between $58 million and $60 million.

All ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ students will use the building’s classroom space.

The building’s main floor will feature not only the and the Welcome Center but also academic support services—the , the and academic services and retention.

The nearly 100,000-square-foot building’s second floor will include College of Nursing and Public Health administrative and instruction space, with state-of-the art simulation labs for nursing students. These labs will include an intensive care unit, a labor and delivery room, a home-care center and physical examination rooms, said College Dean Patrick Coonan, Ed.D., R.N., NEA-BC, FACHE.

The third floor will include the College’s faculty offices, offices and an outdoor events terrace.

The newest academic programs to be offered here include the College’s Master of Public Health, the fully online M.S. in Nutrition and the Emergency Management M.S. and certificate programs. Looking ahead, the College is mulling various public health undergraduate options as well. Ongoing undergraduate programs include the B.S. in Nursing, the R.N. to B.S. in Nursing and the
Accelerated B.S. in Nursing Program.

The Nexus Building will be ready in time for the August 2015 start of classes, said Angelo Proto, M.B.A. ’70, who is managing ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ’s capital projects and capital budget.