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October 9, 2006 Contact: Michelle Galey, WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing 509/324-7372, mgaley@wsu.edu WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing to Celebrate New Nursing College Building October 20SPOKANE, Wash. – The Washington State University Intercollegiate College of Nursing (ICN) will hold an event from 12-12:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 20, to celebrate the initiation of construction of the new College of Nursing building and to thank community leaders for their support of the construction funding request. WSU President V. Lane Rawlins, WSU Regent Chair Kenneth Alhadeff, WSU Chancellor Brian Pitcher, Sen. Lisa Brown, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris, Interim Dean Anne Hirsch, Dean Emeritus Dorothy Detlor and others will speak at the event, highlighting the impact the new building will have on the university, the Spokane community and current and future nursing students. During the ceremony, nursing leaders and founders of the college including Betty Anderson, Betty Harrington and Henry Rehder will take part in the actual groundbreaking event. The 87,000-square-foot building with a total budget of nearly $34 million “is scheduled for completion in 2008, so that the college can move in during the summer and begin classes there in August,” said Bob Pringle, co-chair of the building committee. As the flagship headquarters of the Pacific Northwest’s largest college of nursing, the ICN’s Spokane building will be a center of nursing excellence in research, education and practice. Moving from the western edge of Spokane near Spokane Falls Community College to the downtown Riverpoint location, ICN will be close to downtown medical centers and clinics. With Spokane’s ICN campus acting as the hub, the college will provide undergraduate and graduate nursing education to more than 500 students onsite, and, using distance technology, will provide courses to students who, because of being place bound, would otherwise be unable to complete their nursing degrees. In addition, state-of-the-art clinical simulation labs, research facilities, and expanded health library resources will be provided through the new facility. LMN Architects and Integrus Architecture served as the architectural firms for the project. The building will be built by Graham Construction. Pending legislative approval, the new nursing building will allow the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing to increase the number of students it currently serves to address the ongoing shortage of nurses nationwide. Interim Dean Anne Hirsch said, “Additional faculty and more clinical education experiences need to be in place first before we can commit to actual numbers of new students. “Although we’ll miss our current location, moving to our new building will allow us to partner and work closely with the other health programs offered at the Riverpoint Campus. It’s an exciting time for us,” she said. Note to editors: The program will take place outside, immediately adjacent to the active construction site. For more information about the new building, see nursing.wsu.edu/riverpoint
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