Members of the School of Pharmacy staff look on as the final beam is placed on the new School of Pharmacy building on West Campus. The event Monday afternoon brings the new building for the School of Pharmacy closer to its projected completion date of August of 2010.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The last steel beam is in, and the new School of Pharmacy building is on schedule to open its doors for the fall 2010 semester.
Students, faculty and administration in the school autographed the thirty-foot beam, which was placed yesterday on the northwest corner of the new building on Constant Avenue in West Campus. Ken Audus, dean of pharmacy, said the building should be ready to accept students for the fall 2010 semester. He said the building would offer the school an opportunity to better develop projects such as the standardized client program, in which actors come in to test students on their patient care skills.
“We do it now, but they’re fairly primitive circumstances,” Audus said. “This facility has a suite that was designed specifically for that.”
Gene Hotchkiss, associate dean of pharmacy, said the pharmacy could instantly boost its number of incoming students in Lawrence from 105 to 150 with the new building because of the additional space. He said that 65 percent of pharmacy alumni stayed in the state after graduation and that it would provide more pharmacists for the state.
“For several years we’ve not had adequate space to expand our program and increase the number of students we’re able to take,” Hotchkiss said. “There’s a significant shortage of pharmacists in Kansas and this allows us to increase our enrollment by 50 percent.”
Kelli Bryant, Hays first-year pharmacy student, said she signed the beam because she was proud of the hard work she had done to get into the school.
“I think once you’re here you learn how important the profession is and just getting through the four years,” Bryant said. “It was kind of prideful to put your name on the beam and to be a part of the new building.”
Nancy Muma, professor of pharmacology and toxicology, said the building would offer new technology, such as teleconferencing, which would allow students to communicate with scientists around the world.
“This is going to be terrific for the school for our ability to train pharmacists and other scientists,” Muma said.
Audus said the new building would have larger labs and lecture halls, which means the school could hold more classes simultaneously. He said the pharmacy skills lab in Mallott — where students learn to fill prescriptions — was on two different floors. The new building will put that lab in one room on one floor.
“That’ll save some wear and tear on instructors running up and down to cover two classrooms,” Audus said.
— Edited by Abby Olcese
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