the NEED
Expansion of the Betty M. Anderson Library, and remodeling to provide additional classroom and laboratory space, has been proposed since 1992. Discussions among the College’s administrators and the Presidents of the Consortium universities led to the decision to construct new space for the program at the Riverpoint campus. The plan moved the Riverpoint Library to space in the Academic Center building in July of 2006; the Betty M. Anderson Nursing Library will join it there when the College moves in 2008.
While the existing building is in good repair, it is several miles from the Riverpoint campus and is no longer capable of sustaining the College’s programs. It does not have sufficient classroom space for effective teaching, especially for the number of hours of distance education currently delivered; it does not have enough office space for the faculty currently teaching at the College; it lacks sufficient computer lab/instruction space; it lacks space for research teams to work together (and to store research notes and results); and it has become increasingly less effective to support the amount and variety of information technology used in delivering courses and scholarly work. These facts influenced the decision to re-locate the College of Nursing on the Riverpoint campus with other programs, with the ability to share common facilities. Some of the needs that will be addressed and improved by having a new building are:
- It will dramatically increase access to the nursing programs offered by the College. The anticipated growth will accommodate additional students in Spokane, and more students at the other WSU locations and across the state via distance education.
- Space will be provided for a new doctoral program.The nursing building will include space for additional faculty and researchers, laboratory space and other associated instructional and support space.
- A Clinical Research area will provide space for research projects involving various academic departments, including Nursing, Pharmacy, and other health science programs. Projects sponsored by extramural funding will utilize research subjects enhancing further study of health related issues.
- Specialized instructional space will be provided incorporating the latest technologies and providing flexibility for future advances in instructional technology and distance learning.