Date: Jan. 10, 2007 Editorial contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-2919
(MURFREESBORO) — MTSU School of Nursing students may miss a class or two Friday, Jan. 19, with excused absences.
Students will be part of the dedication of the addition to the Cason-Kennedy Nursing Building, with the celebration to begin at 10 a.m. The two-story, 23,717-square foot addition is connected to the original CKNB and sits across from Tucker Theatre near the intersection of Blue Raider and Faulkinberry drives.
The campus community and general public are invited, said university President Sidney A. McPhee and Dr. Lynn Parsons, School of Nursing director.
“Students will be there,” Parsons said. “It’s (the addition) for the students. Suzanne Prevost (National HealthCare Chair in Nursing), Pam Roesler (assistant professor in nursing) and I were in on the planning and design. The whole idea behind the building was that it needed to be a student-centered environment. We needed more space for them.”
Added Dr. Tom Cheatham, dean of the College of Basic and Applied Sciences, “We’re very excited to have the potential space to allow us to expand the program.
“Two issues that have to be dealt with are the physical space to hold larger classes and serve more students and to increase the number of nursing faculty, which is something over the next few years we can address.”
Nursing, which could hold 36 students when Parsons joined the faculty in 1995, will grow to 64 students in the generic program plus two discretionary military slots and admitting 50 students each semester in an accelerated LPN to B.S.N. program this fall, Parsons said.
The second floor includes 12 faculty offices and secretary/reception suite, 30-seat clinical consultation room, state-of-the-art 20-bed clinical lab with two storage areas, two informal student seating areas, a faculty lounge with a kitchen and two data storage rooms and rest rooms.
The first floor features a 60-seat Dell computer lab classroom, a 78-seat master classroom, a classroom to accommodate 60 to 120 people, a small kitchen area, a student seminar room to hold up to 18 people and rest rooms.
All of the classrooms and the clinical lab have multimedia capability, Cheatham said.
Community partner Christy-Houston Foundation donated more than $2 million for the building expansion and built the first CKNB that opened in 1994, Parsons said. A $736,548 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant enabled MTSU to continue construction in fall of 2005. This was in addition to a $1 million HHS Health Resources and Services Administration grant in 2004.
Christy-Houston representatives, government officials and other guests are expected to attend.
Thomas, Miller & Partners LLC of Nashville was the building designer.
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Media welcomed.
Note: Interior (atrium/student sitting area) and exterior .jpg photos are available. To request, call
615-898-2919. Please credit J. Intintoli/MTSU Photographic Services.
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