Assumption breaks ground on new health sciences building

Image | Courtesy Assumption College's new health sciences building will include classrooms and labs for its new nursing major and other programs.

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By Grant Welker

Assumption College in Worcester is building a new 41,000-square-foot health sciences building for its new nursing program and other health studies.

The building, for which the college held a ceremonial groundbreaking Friday, is part of Assumption's turn toward academics in areas where the most job demand is expected in the coming years. A program major for bachelor's degrees in nursing will begin this fall.

Among other new majors, Assumption is now offering neuroscience and cybersecurity majors and will offer a master's degree in physician assistant studies.

The new three-story building for the college's School of Nursing and School of Health Professions is slated to open in the fall of 2020. It is being built on a hillside lot next to the Emmanuel d'Alzon Library near the rear of the campus.

Assumption said the new building will house teaching facilities equipped with the latest training tools for future nurses and physician assistants. Classrooms have been designed for active learning, and the clinical learning environment is designed to replicate hospital rooms, laboring rooms, and primary care exam rooms. The new building will have four classrooms, along with conference rooms and study spaces.

The new building is the second major addition to Assumption's Salisbury Street campus in the past few years. The Tsotsis Family Academic Center, 62,000-square-foot academic center, opened in the fall of 2017.

Assumption President Francesco Cesareo said the new building will enable students to learn not just how to treat a patient in a clinical sense but in a holistic one, alluding to the college's efforts to build liberal arts into even its health and sciences majors.

"That is a different kind of approach to physical and nursing sciences studies," Cesareo said.

The Rev. Dennis Gallagher, Assumption's vice president for mission, said the new building and the type of courses and lab work to be held there will help the college grow and stay competitive at a time when some families are questioning the value of the increasingly expensive cost of a college degree.

"Assumption can continue to grow with new and impressive facilities," Gallagher said.