GSA Daily Staff Report
Published June 1, 2010

With the approval by the South Carolina Board of Nursing of its nursing program feasibility study, Anderson University is now engaged in the process of obtaining approval by the board to begin an undergraduate nursing program.

The target date for initiation of this program is 2012.

AU will now conduct an evaluation phase to develop more specific details of a potential program for review by the Board of Nursing. Those processes must be satisfactorily completed before students can be recruited or any possible time frame for the application process can be considered.

“We’re getting g a lot of students from out-of-state and our in-state population is increasing every year,” AU President Evans Whitaker recently told GSA Business. “Ultimately everything we do is to make the learning experience exceptional.”

The news about the nursing school comes as AU plans to invest $3 million to construct two new residence halls, expand an existing residence hall and add a restaurant within its library for student dining. The two new dormitories will be located next to a resident hall that was constructed two years ago. The residence hall renovation will convert existing office space into about 40 additional rooms.

While a restaurant will be located in the library, the long-range vision for the university includes a new $12 million student center that would include a large dining hall. Funds still need to be raised for that project, for Whitaker said the building will only be constructed debt free.

Over the past two years, the school purchased the former 77-acre Anderson County Fairgrounds and John and Marie Pracht donated 125 contiguous acres on Williamston Road. In a matter of months, the 68-acre historic campus has expanded to 270 acres through the acquisitions.