UF College of Pharmacy celebrates "firsts" with a groundbreaking at St. Petersburg College
At a groundbreaking ceremony today at the St. Petersburg College campus, the University of Florida College of Pharmacy celebrates two "firsts" a multi-agency partnership that includes a $1.1 million gift from Eckerd Corp., and the first classroom teaching facility to be constructed by the college at a distance from the UF campus.
"What this new building will mean to future generations of pharmacists and the patients they will serve, will be left to history," said College of Pharmacy Dean and Associate Provost of Distance Education William Riffee, Ph.D. "I can only point to this historic act as the beginning of what I perceive to be a model of cooperation between industry and education."
The Eckerd gift will fund the building costs for the 8,500 -square-foot pharmacy education facility on the SPC campus, which will include laboratory and classroom space, and administrative offices for student affairs. It is scheduled to be completed for instructional use during the 2004 - 2005 academic year.
Through collaboration with SPC, the University Partnership Center, and Eckerd Corp., UF is creating successful partnerships with a new standard of cooperation that crosses artificial boundaries of geography, public interest and private sector, Riffee said.
After successfully completing its first academic year, the College of Pharmacy SPC campus brought in a new freshman class this fall, growing to 110 students. College administrators knew that growth would have to be planned to fully accommodate the anticipated enrollment of 200 pharmacy students when the freshman class of 2005 enters. Not only were they planning for the space to accommodate students, faculty and staff, but also for the specialized laboratory facilities and equipment critical to pharmacy education, said Michael Brodeur, M.P.A., College of Pharmacy assistant dean for administrative and financial affairs.
The University Partnership Center, funded through the Florida Legislature, is an alliance of 12 Florida colleges and universities. Its mission is to offer programs with bachelor's and graduate degrees to students in the Pinellas county area. Jennifer Williams, Pharm.D., College of Pharmacy director of the SPC campus, has been pleased with the shared multipurpose educational classrooms provided by the center for her students.
"The University Partner Center has done everything possible to accommodate our first and second-year students," Williams said, "but it will be critical for our third-year class to have a facility that's tailored for teaching clinical pharmacy including a skills laboratory, model pharmacy and patient counseling center."
With construction now officially underway, the college does not consider its work to be done. Instead, it will focus on its two other pharmacy distance learning campuses in the state.
"Now that we have achieved this milestone in St. Petersburg, we hope to improve our doctor of pharmacy teaching facilities in Orlando and Jacksonville similarly as those programs begin their second year," Brodeur said.