College of Nursing facility approved for New Brunswick
Archived article from Apr 26, 2004
By Richard Gorman
The Rutgers Board of Governors has approved construction of an $8 million, state-of-the-art learning center for the College of Nursing near Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. The new facility will assist Rutgers in addressing the critical nursing shortage faced by New Jersey and much of the nation.
When completed in 2006, the 16,000-square-foot building will encompass classrooms, faculty offices, an intensive care unit learning laboratory, an advanced patient simulator, four examination rooms, a prep room and a research room. Clinical teaching and research facilities operated by the university’s Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy will be located in the building. The new school of nursing will serve as the primary learning center for more than 250 nursing students studying at the New Brunswick/Piscataway campus.
In his remarks at the April 8 board of governors meeting, President Richard L. McCormick voiced strong support for the measure. “This is a tremendous opportunity for Rutgers, and for nursing, to build a multidisciplinary health sciences education building adjacent to the Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine, the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the soon-to-be established stem cell research institute. Together, they will form a distinguished, clinically based academic medical center in the City of New Brunswick.”
The new facility will replace two small buildings on the College Avenue campus that house the College of Nursing program in New Brunswick. The original buildings were constructed as residences and date back more than 80 years. The new center will be on a site owned by the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. Rutgers will lease the site for $1 a year. The facility’s proximity to the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the university hospital, the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the offices of many health care professionals will afford opportunities for faculty and students to interact across disciplines and for clinical research collaboration.
The location of the new building – on Bayard Street near the hospital – is a contentious subject. The board voted to authorize construction of the facility over the objections of Dorothy DeMaio, professor emerita and former dean of the College of Nursing, and several nursing students, who cited personal safety, no access to related science classes and laboratories, and its location far from other university facilities as major reasons the building should not be located in New Brunswick.
“I founded the nursing program in New Brunswick more than two decades ago and my passion for its future holds no bounds,” DeMaio told the board. “I am here to tell you that those who know Rutgers and New Jersey and who really care about the future of nursing education see the execution of the proposal to physically disenfranchise nursing from all of Rutgers’ other academic health science schools and campus life as a tragedy.”
“It’s taking away from our college experience,” nursing student Kristina J. Pejic added. “You’re taking students off campus.” Pejic is student senate president at the College of Nursing on the New Brunswick campus. “We would like to see the building on the Busch campus, where nursing students take science courses.” Speaking in favor of the location, Felissa R. Lashley, current dean of the college of nursing, said there are many reasons for selecting the downtown New Brunswick site. “Interdisciplinary collaboration in education research and the proximity of faculty and students to clinical process and research opportunities are a couple of the major strengths. All things considered, the balance weighs out.”
Claudia Beckman, associate professor in the College of Nursing, also supported the proposal. “Partnership and interdisciplinary work, that’s the name of the game today and you have to play that game,” she said. “Many university nursing schools throughout the country – the University of Colorado, the University of Illinois, the University of Kansas, Johns-Hopkins … are in proximity to health centers.”
Board member David Harris, a longtime New Brunswick resident, stressed the importance of the nursing education center to the local community. “It is painful to be on the other side of this issue from the people who are primary caregivers,” Harris said, referring to the students who opposed the location.
“I know you will be disappointed today with my vote,” Harris added. “But it is a vote for the whole of the community and the stakeholders here. It’s not a vote to break your hearts.” He asked students to “stay in this process as the planners go forward and to remain committed to lift the level of cooperation and understanding.”
Jason Redd, the student representative to the board, asked the students to take an active role in influencing the design of the new nursing facility. Redd pledged his full cooperation in making student voices heard as the planning and design process continues.
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