New MU nursing building ready to welcome students displaced by construction, pandemic
The new home of the University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing will welcome students on Monday with the start of the fall semester.
"For the students, coming from the demolition of the old building, to being separated by COVID, this is a coming home for them," said Bill Martin, director of business administration for the school. "This is their home."
The students have been referred to as "nomads" in the interim period.
The four-story, $30 million structure takes up nearly 65,000 square feet of area. It's built on the footprint of the old nursing school, just south of Stankowski Field and nestled between the MU School of Medicine and Ellis Fischel Cancer Center.
It's connected to the medical school, so faculty can easily move from one building to another, said nursing school spokeswoman Anissa Lockett.
Officials held a virtual groundbreaking in 2020 during the pandemic. At that event, MU Chancellor and UM System President Mun Choi said the nursing school had graduated 1,200 nurses since 2012, but space constraints in the old building caused 1,900 prospective students to be turned away in the same period.
The new building is meant to remedy that.
There were still signs of construction and computers being installed on Friday.
"We are going to be able to have class on Monday," Lockett said.
She pointed out the 14-bed skills lab, where faculty members were meeting on Friday.
"If there were ever a need, it could turn into a hospital," Lockett said of the skills lab.
There are seven rooms that simulate an intensive care unit, she said. It has video monitors and a two-way mirror, on the other side of which a faculty member can observe and with a computer enter new challenges for the students.
"These simulate all the things that can happen in a hospital room," Lockett said.
The building came together despite hardships, she said.
"We built this in the middle of COVID and supply-chain shortages," she said.
Some of the hospital beds are borrowed until the new ones arrive, she said.
There's a research suite, allowing research teams to come together.
A seminar room is connected to all forms of technology, Lockett said.
The Millie and Mike Brown Foundation Classroom can seat 150 students, she said.
A spacious student lounge gives students space to relax and study.
"Nursing's a team sport," Lockett said.
The wait is almost over, said Robin Harris, associate dean of academic affairs.
"I think the new building is amazing," Harris said. "It's beautiful. It's been a long time. The students, I can't wait. I can't wait to see people's faces and reactions."
She gets emotional about the building, she said.
"I think I cried all week," Harris said.
Roger McKinney is the education reporter for the Tribune. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on Twitter at @rmckinney9.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Nursing students will attend classes Monday in new high-tech building
