Agreement would lead to new science facility

Oct. 21, 2004
By Christine Mastalio
Features Editor

A multi-million dollar health sciences facility could be part of the St. Ambrose University campus in the future. Genesis Medical Center offered the university three million dollars and a 99-year lease of land on the west campus of the hospital. The nursing, occupational therapy and physical therapy programs would be housed in the new building.

“We were first approached one and a half years ago about a possible development of a health science center that would be on Genesis’ campus,” St. Ambrose University academic vice-president Lori Rodrigues-Fisher said.

The proposed center would cost between $9.8 million and $12.5 million. The projected completion date is 2008. Currently St. Ambrose is conducting a feasibility study to determine if the university has enough resources to complete the center.

In an e-mail sent after an Oct. 8 board of directors meeting, university president Ed Rogalski alerted students, faculty and staff and other members of the campus community of the proposal.

He said the feasibility study should be done by the end of the calendar year.

“We will go out to people who are friends of St. Ambrose and ask them if they are willing to contribute to a building that will help to educate nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists and possibly pharmacists for the community,” Rodrigues-Fisher said.

As part of the health science center, St. Ambrose is considering adding a doctorate degree program in pharmacology.

“The projection is that there is going to be a shortage of 20,000 pharmacists in the next ten years,” Rodrigues-Fisher said. “There are 90 pharmacy schools in the country and they graduate 8,000 students a year. That will not meet the shortage. We need to have pharmacists in this country.”

The university has been researching pharmacology programs in schools similar to St. Ambrose and met with the accreditation board in Chicago to find out what would need to be done, Fisher said.

If the program is added, St. Ambrose would be one of three schools in Iowa to have a pharmacology program. There are already programs at the University of Iowa and Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

For the three existing health science programs, the building would contain 50,000 to 65,000 square feet of classrooms, labs and office space. Now, the occupational therapy department has three classrooms in Hayes Hall that double as lab space.

“It’s hard because we always have to rearrange between every class,” Director of Occupational Therapy Phyllis Wenthe said. “What you need for one class you might not need for the next. We spend a lot of time getting the lab ready for one class and then the next person spends a lot of time getting theirs ready.”

The health science programs need non-traditional space and equipment for their labs, Wenthe said.

“We need spaces that are like hospital rooms to practice procedures,” she said. “Students are going to have to go out in fieldwork and recommend to clients how to set up their homes. You have to know how to do car transfers. You could have spaces to make teaching a lot easier.”

Rodrigues-Fisher said the new building would free up tight classroom space on campus, especially if the university reaches its goal of 4,000 total students by 2007.

“We need an academic science center because of programs that are growing and doing extremely well,” she said.

Currently there are 184 students enrolled in the nursing program, 64 in occupational therapy and 74 in physical therapy. The occupational and physical therapy numbers do not include undergraduate students who are planning to enter the graduate programs. With the new building, the growing departments could expand their capacity.

“There is still a need for more therapists,” Wenthe said. “We’ve got a shortage of people willing to go to the schools and universities to teach as well.”

The proximity to Genesis would enable students to attend clinics, seminars and other opportunities at the hospital, Wenthe said.

“St. Ambrose students will be right there on Genesis’ campus and can walk right from class to clinicals,” Rodrigues-Fisher.

Located on the southeast corner of Genesis Medical Center’s property, the center is about one mile from the main St. Ambrose campus.

“If there’s any drawback, I guess it’s being off campus,” Wenthe said. “I don’t know that it’s a big enough drawback for us to say, ‘No, let’s not do this’.”

Wenthe said there would probably be a shuttle back and forth between the building and the main campus.

Both Rodrigues-Fisher and Wenthe said they hoped being near the hospital would open up research and development opportunities for faculty at St. Ambrose.

The hospital staff could also benefit from the new facility.

“Genesis has a huge population of nurses and other health care professionals that they would like to have advance their education,” Rodrigues-Fisher said. “Genesis hospital nurses and other healthcare professionals can walk right across their campus to our building.”

Properly trained healthcare professionals are vital to any community, Rodrigues-Fisher said.

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