The Michigan State University Board of Trustees has authorized administrators to plan a next-generation health education facility that will expand the university’s simulation and digital health education capacity, provide a new home to the College of Osteopathic Medicine and allow for enrollment growth in the College of Nursing. 

The new facility — which would include simulation, anatomy, prosection and fresh tissues laboratories as well as spaces for support, administrative needs and public gatherings — would provide opportunities for new synergies and support other academic programs including the College of Human Medicine, kinesiology, College of Veterinary Medicine and others. 

“The new facility would anchor the emerging life sciences campus zone while enhancing the educational experiences not only for those colleges but also for the campus community as a whole,” said Norman Beauchamp Jr., executive vice president for Health Sciences at MSU.  

“A new space for the osteopathic medical school on the East Lansing campus of MSU will not only provide improved educational and training areas for our medical students, but also lets them know that we value them and support them as they work to become future physicians who will meet the many needs of patients and communities,” said Andrea Amalfitano, dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine. “It is wonderful to see this project take this important step forward after years of work.” 

Leigh Small, dean of the College of Nursing, said the new simulation space will better prepare nursing students to be in the clinical environment and provide new opportunities for research and scholarship efforts. 

“This collaborative environment could be a thought incubator across colleges and disciplines, resulting in innovative educational practices, research implementation and data harvesting, ultimately helping improve health education across MSU,” Small said. 

Originally, the projects were included in the MSU Five-Year Capital Outlay Plan as two separate buildings, but it’s now envisioned as a larger project with a focus on interdisciplinary collaboration, in addition to the state-of-the-art medical facility. 

“MSU is committed to providing the best experience for our health sciences students and to developing new career pathways to support them,” Beauchamp added. “A new health education building would provide us with capacity to innovate and adapt to the growing health care professions’ needs of our state.” 

A completed plan has to be submitted and approved by the board before moving forward.