“Our medical education, research and care programs are growing and changing to keep pace with massive changes happening in patient care,” Kenneth Johnson, executive dean of OU-HCOM, said in an email. “We’ve outgrown our facilities in Athens."
Students at the Athens campus of Ohio University's medical school may soon be going to class on West Union Street instead of West Green.
As a part of OU’s Comprehensive Master Plan, the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine could move from its West Green location in Grosvenor and Irvine halls to West Union Street in the next 10 years.
“Our medical education, research and care programs are growing and changing to keep pace with massive changes happening in patient care,” Kenneth Johnson, executive dean of OU-HCOM, said in an email. “We’ve outgrown our facilities in Athens."
Johnson said the college received money from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation in 2011, so it made sense to plan for new facilities.
"Rather than continuing to try to retro-fit a modern medical school and research facilities into 1960-era dorms, we’re excited for the opportunity to rationalize our footprint on campus and in the community, and to build more flexible, purpose-driven facilities for our education, research and care programs," Johnson said in an email. "We’ve done well over the past 40 years to operate out of unused residential halls.”
Andre Bown, a second-year medical student and president of the college’s student government, said it’s great the college potentially will have a new facility in Athens.
“I’m a little bummed that I don’t get to utilize it, but I think it’s necessary from just a standpoint of technology,” Bown said. “In my opinion, technology is used hand in hand with medicine, so I think it’s nice that we’re going to be getting a new facility. I know they’ve done a great job of trying to renovate, but now I think we’re to the point where renovating doesn’t really fix the issues.”
The college is in a feasibility phase, which means officials are making early examinations of the project. Johnson said they then will begin a design phase and will ask faculty, students and staff for input.
“It’s time to thank these buildings for their service,” Johnson said in an email. “It’s imperative that we make far-sighted, careful decisions about how we use space on this campus for today and for the future for our medical students, researchers, staff and community members.”
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Kevin Petersen, a principal for Ayers Saint Gross — a consulting firm that is working with OU on its master plan — said at the January Board of Trustees meeting moving the college out of the dorms could offer more opportunities for student housing.
It is an option to “pull out OU-HCOM and move them to a new green and free that space up” for more dorms, he said at the meeting.
With continuously increasing enrollment, OU has struggled to accommodate students looking to live in the dorms after their sophomore year.
Bown said he has been told that the facility likely will resemble the new Dublin and Cleveland ones, but it still will have a unique Athens identity. In addition to new technology and improved working spaces, he thinks more centralized locker rooms, a larger community area, a deli and coffee area, and a small gym would be nice additions to the new facility.
“I think they’re going to make things more concise, and I think things will flow a lot better in a new building,” he said. “I do feel like we’re a subcommunity at OU, and I don’t feel like us moving will really change that.”
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