Thursday, October 19, 2006

Allied Health Facility coming to UND

The Dakota Student recently reported that, among other construction projects coming to the UND campus in the near future, work should soon start on a $20 million dollar "Allied Health Facility" directly south of the School of Medicine. I'm assuming that not everyone reads The Dakota Student so I thought I would mention this. I haven't seen anything about this anywhere else, so I was very interested in this article.

The building will bring several medical programs at UND together under one roof which should improve synergy and convenience between the programs. I think this is great news for the medical community at UND and great news for the University itself. I have always thought that having a medical school on campus is one of those things that makes UND seem like a truly "comprehensive" institution. In my opinion, it is important to keep the School of Medicine healthy and growing. It is a vital asset for the state of North Dakota (trains half our doctors), produces many of the country's Native American physicians, and is a leader in the area of rural health. It truly has a rich history and anything to keep it healthy is great, in my opinion.

Like the article states, this building will take up the exisiting parking lot at the School of Medicine, but the new parking ramp should make up for that. I'm thinking the University is going to have to start looking at that second parking ramp east of Columbia Road a little sooner than they figured...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you, the parking ramp east of Columbia will probably come into play a lot sooner if/when they lose another parking lot.

Anonymous said...

With an expanded Medical School, Law School and arguably the best Aerospace and Aviation department in the country, UND has positioned itself well for the future.

Anonymous said...

This building is much needed for the allied health programs at are part of the UND Medical School. Some of these programs are dominant in their fields in the country and adding more space is vital for their sucess and viability.

Anonymous said...

In the article, they talk about UND being nearly landlocked.

Why is there a reluctance to build "up" and not just "out" at UND. It seems they could save on energy costs by doing that, in addition to the most important savings of all...space.

Anonymous said...

and how sad that we live in a state in which when the largest university asks for money for physical improvements, they are always denied...sad

Anonymous said...

No state legislator ever got turned out of office for lowballing education. Thus you have high local property taxes, the lowest teacher salaries in the country, threatened legal actions to achieve equity and, at UND, the elimination of education as a mission in favor of bringing in research dollars.

Anonymous said...

Amen,

Preaching to the choir, but investment in education is returned many times over. With a half billion dollar surplus, now would be the best time to pitch.

Anonymous said...

Parking at UND is atrocious. There is not nearly enough space for all the members of the UND community who pay for their parking permits to park. The parking ramp currently under construction will accomodate those who currently cannot find parking; it will not satisfy the overflow caused by taking over the med school parking lot. If UND plans on taking over another parking lot to build a new facility, it should build a new parking ramp first.

Anonymous said...

Ever since I have been a student, I don't take pity on people that complain about parking. There is a thousand spaces owned by UND near the ralph that sit empty every day. The shuttle busses go through every five minutes. Off campus students should think about when they lived in the dorms and had to walk a mile to classes then. Park a distance away and take the bus...it is what everyone at larger universtities does...if they are even allowed to bring a car!