Rock Valley College to add Health Sciences Center, partner with Saint Anthony College of Nursing

ROCKFORD, April 16 — Rock Valley College will soon break ground on a new main campus building project — a Health Science Center— to help meet the growing demand for nurses and other health care workers in our region.

The new 117,000 square-foot, four-story building will provide world class learning facilities for students in the nursing and allied health fields. In a collaboration to provide opportunities to nursing students beyond the associate’s degree, Saint Anthony College of Nursing will occupy almost two floors of the building and offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in nursing. The collaboration will create a seamless way to earn a four-year nursing degree on the RVC campus.

“This is a very exciting collaboration for both institutions, the type that truly transforms a community,” said RVC president Mike Mastroianni. “We know that there will be a shortage of nurses nationwide in less than five years. This is an opportunity for students in our region to participate in fully accredited programs in one of the newest, state-of-the-art facilities in the Midwest.”

Of the total square footage, Rock Valley College will occupy approximately 80,000, with Saint Anthony College of Nursing residing in the remainder, located primarily on the third and fourth floor.

“To partner with Rock Valley College provides students in our region a unique education continuum that will lead to career opportunities needing to be filled and that are both personally and financially rewarding,” said OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center president Paula Carynski. “Rockford and our region want to produce more college graduates and try to keep that valuable talent here. I believe today we have taken a definitive and important step toward that ‘transformative’ end.”

Construction work on the Health Sciences Center is anticipated to begin in June 2015, with classes beginning in the spring semester (January) 2017. The building will include 13 classrooms and 10 laboratories.

See our RAEDC Facebook gallery here.

Local media coverage:
Rockford Register Star
WREX