Mississippi University for Women’s campus will soon be seeing a new building open, and it hopes to add another in the near future.
President Nora Miller spoke Tuesday to the Rotary Club of Columbus at Lion Hills Center about future plans for the university, especially in relation to the buildings.
The new $15 million culinary arts building is slated to be completed in April 2023.
“The culinary arts building is going up like gangbusters,” Miller said. “We are really excited. This time next year, our culinary arts students will have a truly state of the art facility.”
It runs parallel to 15th Street and it will feature a plethora of advancements that will elevate the program including four kitchens, one of which is a tiered demonstration kitchen, as well as a chocolate room that has humidity control.
The other project, which is still in the planning stages, is to renovate Fant Hall, expanding the nursing program.
The school is currently preparing a proposal asking the legislature for $7.6 million to fund the project.
“We are asking for $7.6 million that would allow us to renovate Fant Hall, which is a former residence hall, a historic building, in the middle of our campus, right across the street from Martin Hall, where our college of nursing is,” Miller said. “We would renovate that first floor for academic space for our nurses. We would have extended simulation labs and academic meeting rooms, faculty offices and then the top floors would be renovated for learning communities for our nursing students. We do have a learning community for them, but it’s filled and they really like to be able to live together and study together and have a quiet atmosphere for living in.”
Miller said the university currently graduates more than 100 pre-licensure nurses annually, which are the associate and baccalaureate degrees. However, with the expansion, it is looking to increase that number by more than 50 percent.
“If we are able to expand this program, we’ll be able to produce anywhere from 60 to 80 more nurses,” she said.
Miller said that a team of legislators visited campus recently and they were responsive to the project.
The ultimate goal is to give back to the state by increasing the number of nurses in the workforce.
“We feel that the best thing that we can do for the state of Mississippi right now is to enhance health care by producing more nurses,” Miller said.
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