University of Michigan regents approve construction of new $50M School of Nursing facility

The construction project is expected to add about 75,000 square feet of space to the nursing school.

The school currently operates in a former hospital first built in 1913 and purchased by U-M in 1977. The setup is not conducive to the school's growing student body and faculty and its various simulation exercises, U-M Provost Philip Hanlon told the regents.

"The new kinds of research and new kinds of teaching require a different kind of space than we’re able to construct in their nearly 100-year-old building," Hanlon said.

The school's student body has grown 26 percent in the past 10 years —from 720 students in fall 2001 to 980 students in fall 2011— and it plans to add an additional 40 faculty and staff over the next 10 years.

The new facility will include a clinical learning center with simulation and skill labs, simulated patient suites and some faculty and administrative offices.

It will be located at the intersection of Kingsley Street and North Ingalls Street, near the existing School of Nursing building.

About 125 parking spaces will have to be cleared for the project, possibly making already crunched parking on U-M's medical campus even more scarce. Slottow wrote in a memo that U-M will be "increasing parking in the medical center area and continuing to use transit service."