Health Education Building

Overview of Scope:

The College of Osteopathic Medicine is housed in Fee Hall, originally built in 1964 as a residence hall. The doubling of the college’s class size includes continued use of Fee Hall as well as expansion sites at the Detroit Medical Center and Macomb University Center. The Fee Hall spaces no longer align with accreditation expectations and curriculum changes, impacting recruitment of students of the college. The original function of Fee Hall coupled with its aging infrastructure does not support significant reinvestment. Instead, a replacement facility is needed to meet the functional needs of the college.

Similarly, the College of Nursing cannot meet the enrollment demand from students, nor respond to the nursing shortage in part due to insufficient capacity in its existing simulation facility. Simulation has become a key component of teaching and learning within the curriculum, an expectation of accreditation, and will better prepare students as they enter the workforce. A new simulation facility would serve both undergraduate and graduate students within the college and afford opportunities for continuing education programs.

The building also would provide an opportunity to serve academic programs beyond the colleges of Osteopathic Medicine and Nursing associated with the specialized teaching spaces such as anatomy and simulation. The curricula and learning opportunities for students in the colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Education, in particular the Department of Kinesiology, already use some of the existing anatomy and simulation facilities and would benefit from this new facility. This would also provide opportunities for new synergies, support a shared resource model, and leverage the use of space and facility resources.

The building would create a modern, state of the art teaching and learning facility that includes specialized and high-tech spaces for simulation and anatomy, classrooms and class labs, skills laboratories, and small group rooms along with College of Osteopathic Medicine administrative and departmental related offices, and space to support informal and formal gatherings.

The anticipated location is in the south academic district within the biomedical discovery neighborhood near the colleges of Nursing and Human Medicine student-facing functions. Proximity to these functions that occur in existing buildings in the south academic district is critical to the collaborative nature of teaching and learning, and will support opportunities for sharing of resources and operational efficiencies. Site evaluation will account for infrastructure requirements. Planning will set the stage for future demolition of Fee Hall, which does not functionally align with the academic and academic support needs and has a 10-year, $119 million capital renewal need.

The MSU Board of Trustees authorized proceeding with planning and design for this project in April 2023.

Phase

• Planning/Design

Schedule

• Construction start: TBD

Capital project number

• CP22017