New Tech Center Opening at TCC: SCIENCE SHOW
By April Marciszewski, Tulsa World, Okla.
Feb. 8–Tulsa Community College will fete its new Health Sciences and Biotechnology Learning Center on Thursday, culminating in an evening presentation by television’s Bill Nye, “The Science Guy.”
The $8 million, 43,000-square-foot center on the Southeast Campus is the first higher education Vision 2025 project to be completed. It houses TCC’s nursing, biotechnology and medical laboratory technician programs.
Private donors and corporations contributed $1.28 million to equip the building. The fundraising campaign last year was TCC’s largest.
A competitive grant from the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education is helping TCC expand its nursing and allied health programs, TCC President Tom McKeon said.
Construction on the center started in July 2005, officials said.
McKeon said the center will benefit Tulsa by allowing the college to admit 30 percent more students to its nursing program to help alleviate the local registered-nurse shortage.
TCC hopes to increase the number of nursing students to 325 by this fall.
Medical lab technology enrollment also can expand significantly.
TCC’s new biotechnology program will provide technicians and researchers for the quickly growing career in Oklahoma, McKeon said.
Oklahoma City Community College is the only other college in the state that offers the program, said Associate Dean of Science and Math Joe Parli.
McKeon said: “One of the big areas in terms of workforce shortages is allied health and nursing. That’s one of the reasons why we got great support from the hospitals and private donors to help equip the building.”
Parli said the new center is better preparing students to start jobs and immediately know how to use the latest equipment.
TCC has worked to ensure that its programs meet industries’ exact needs, and the college already has received requests from university research centers and Cancer Treatment Centers of America for biotechnology graduates.
The Tulsa area lacks enough clinical sites for health-care students to learn with real patients, so in the new center, nursing students will supplement their clinical experience by practicing their skills on simulation robots, Parli said.
Grand-opening activities Thursday will include a ribbon-cutting ceremony, workshops by Nye and TCC professors for local high school students, and the evening presentation by Nye.
The workshops will introduce more than 100 students to nursing, biotechnology and medical lab technology in hopes of sparking their interest in scientific careers, TCC spokeswoman Cindy Lewis said.
Because of the growing importance of science and math, TCC wants to develop excitement about the Biotechnology and Health Sciences Learning Center, McKeon said.
“We wanted to get kids in high school interested in science and excited about careers in science,” he said.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Tulsa World, Okla.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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