MALVERN -- The Arkansas State University System board of trustees approved construction of a new nursing building at its Three Rivers campus.
The building will accommodate an increase in practical nursing and registered nursing slots, as well as new programs for certified nursing assistants and emergency medical technicians, according to the ASU System. The $8 million project will be financed entirely through federal grant funds and is scheduled for completion next summer.
Trustees met at the Three Rivers campus in Malvern on Friday.
Chancellor Steve Rook thanked Republican U.S. Sen. John Boozman, who secured the appropriation in Congress. Congress passed the fiscal year 2023 omnibus appropriations package in late December 2022. The average amount of funding directed to community colleges for fiscal 2023 was $1.2 million, according to the American Association of Community Colleges. The $8 million for ASU Three Rivers was the largest amount provided for a single project at a two-year college in the country from that package, according to Rook and the American Association of Community Colleges.
ASU Three Rivers currently has 200 students in its nursing programs in an 11,000-square-foot building, and "we need more room," Rook said.
The new building should be between 22,000-25,000 square feet, he said. Enrollment and retention rates are already up this year compared to the prior year at ASU Three Rivers, and "our two-year graduates have the highest average starting salary of any two-year college in the state" at nearly $50,000, he said, adding that the new nursing building can only further improve those metrics.
This facility "is badly needed," and there's a tremendous need for nurses in the state and country, System President Chuck Welch said. "We're very grateful to [Boozman] for his leadership in securing the appropriation" for this "major expansion" to nursing at ASU Three Rivers.