THE NEW ACADEMIC CENTER
At Stevenson , change is always in the air — so much so that Su ’ s signature green could be ascribed to its constant growth .
“ This is a particularly exciting fall as we open our largest academic building ,” says President Kevin J . Manning , Ph . D . “ Stevenson ’ s new Academic Center will provide state-of-the-art instructional resources for the School of the Sciences and the new School of Health Professions as well as space for the School of Design .” Yet the benefits of this space aren ’ t limited to these three undergraduate Schools — the new Center will touch all areas of the University , not just during its debut semester but for years to come .
Crunching the Numbers
In 2011 , Stevenson purchased the former Shire Pharmaceuticals property located adjacent to its Owings Mills campus . In 2013 , the 18,000-square-foot School of Design building opened for its first classes , but the campus ’ second building , the pharmaceutical company ’ s primary manufacturing facility , needed further work to be classroom-ready . In partnership with builder — and longtime University friend — Howard Brown , Stevenson was able to renovate the existing space at a fraction of the cost of what other universities would pay , says Tim Campbell , Executive Vice President for Financial Affairs and CFO . “ By working with Howard Brown , we were able to renovate this building much more efficiently than it would have taken to produce such a state-of-the art facility by starting from scratch .”
Now , the renovated building more than triples the amount of space currently available to the School of the Sciences and School of Health Professions . The 200,000-square-foot building also will house classes and studios for the School of Design as well as a third University library , the Learning Commons . And the University as a whole will benefit from the Academic Center ; the recently vacated space on the Greenspring campus will allow more opportunities for expansion by the School of Education and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences .
For the three Schools , the University was able to add :
• 19 general classrooms ,
• 120 offices ,
• 5 conference rooms ,
• 6 studios ,
• The SoLVE ( Solutions for Learning and Vibrant Education ) Center ,
• And more than 40 teaching , research , skills , simulation , computer , and specialty design labs and studios .
“ In addition to all of the new academic space , we also gained approximately 18 acres of attractive campus space , which bodes extremely well for the future ,” Campbell says . “ We have very effectively , efficiently , and economically acquired space that will make it conducive to grow the University ’ s enrollment capacity .”
Three Schools , One Location
How will each of the three Schools housed in the Academic Center use their space ? Judiciously , and with great anticipation .
Jeanne Geiger-Brown , Ph . D ., Dean of the School of Health Professions , says that students in the nursing program — the largest major at Stevenson — will benefit from the new facilities from their first year on campus . “ There are now three fully outfitted large , bright skills labs where students can learn , earlier in their academic careers , more basic healthcare skills , such as suctioning and inserting various tubes like a Foley catheter or nasal gastric tube ,” she says . There are also more beds and examination tables to teach students how to perform complete physical exams on manikins .
10 | VENTURES / FALL 2016