Emporia State’s Nursing program is still moving on campus, but the move is being delayed and the program won’t use an old building when it comes over from Newman Regional Health.
The nursing program has been using Newman Regional Health’s Cora Miller Hall for years. Back in April, Emporia State announced plans to move from Cora Miller to Central Morse on campus — but that plan changed after a “critical analysis” of the possible retrofit, and ESU Director of Media Relations Gwen Larson says using an old residence hall didn’t lend itself well to becoming the home of a state-of-the-art nursing program. Larson says the decision to build a new facility, which will also include Student Wellness Services, will end with a better project for Nursing as a result.
Newman Regional Health had already announced plans to extend Nursing’s time inside Cora Miller Hall as part of its November meeting.
The project cost goes from $8.5 million to almost $22 million, including adding the $1 million cost to demolish Central Morse. However, ESU says removing the current building will cut over $4 million in deferred maintenance from the university budget. ESU says increasing the project scope also sets the stage for the university to “remove South and Southeast Morse from the campus inventory,” thus eliminating $6 million in deferred maintenance and ending a projected $18.4 million maintenance cost for the two buildings over the next 20 years. Increasing the scope of the new building project also reduces the campus footprint, energy consumption and operating costs while improving use of space and the student experience while enhancing enrollment and retention.
