Tomorrow will be a truly extraordinary day for the School of Nursing, the College of Health, and Southern Miss. At 11 a.m., President Saunders will announce the official start of an $8 million private fundraising campaign to help construct a new nursing building, and a single, strikingly generous gift that will take us halfway to that goal. Not a bad way to kick off the spring semester!
Once completed, the 86,000-sq.-ft., three-story, $31 million facility will allow Southern Miss to make a great leap forward in nursing education and community engagement. The current facility is crimping enrollments and instructional capacity. The new one will permit up to a 45% expansion in student numbers, and will feature state-of-the-art clinical simulation and computer labs, side-by-side with electronically-enhanced classroom, conference, office, and informal interactive space.
The new building will solidify and significantly advance Southern Miss’ growing reputation as both a practical and visionary leader in nursing and the health-related professions generally. It could hardly come at a more opportune time, when Mississippi’s and the region’s needs for health care and wellness promotion seem to grow more acute by the day.
