$60 million facility to open at UTEP May 2011
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EL PASO, Texas — A state-of-the-art, 210,000 square foot facility for the University of Texas at El Paso School of Nursing and College of Health Sciences is set to open its doors on Wiggins Way, across the street from the library in the area where the Student Health Center used to be. The 40-year-old converted Hotel Dieu currently serving as the UTEP College of Health Science and Nursing Program headquarters is insufficient spatially to accommodate its nearly 2,500 students and 150 faculty and staff, UTEP administrators contend. Moreover, its one-and-a-half-mile distance from the main campus has presented logistical problems for those who commute to and from it. According to a UTEP 2007 Facility Proposal, “the quality of healthcare in the Paso del Norte region relies heavily on UTEP’s capacity to prepare graduates in a broad range of health professions programs.” Such programs include: nursing, physical therapy, speech/language pathology, pharmacy, occupational therapy, kinesiology, health promotion and clinical laboratory science. Pursuant to graduation, a substantial portion of UTEP health graduates stay in the Paso del Norte region. To aid in increasing the number of qualified health professionals, UTEP has expanded various programs and admitted more students, causing the need for the new facility.