East Tennessee State University’s James H. Quillen College of Medicine broke ground Thursday on a new Student Study Center that will provide students with a dedicated place to study come the fall semester of 2011.Leaders from the Quillen College of Medicine and the main ETSU campus were joined by Quillen alumni and medical students during a groundbreaking ceremony behind Stanton-Gerber Hall, the main administration building for the college.

The center, which features 4,800 square feet of study space, will be located adjacent to Stanton-Gerber.

Dr. Philip C. Bagnell, dean of the College of Medicine, was joined by ETSU President Dr. Paul E. Stanton Jr. and other dignitaries who shoveled the first dirt at the building site. Initial construction is close at hand, with an anticipated December start so the building can be occupied next fall.

Bagnell said the need for a Student Study Center was identified long ago, but the project was cost-prohibitive. The center became viable, Bagnell said, when Quillen students voted two years ago to increase student fees to finance the project.

“We have known for some time that Quillen needed a Student Study Center; you could even say it has been the biggest missing element on our campus,” Bagnell said. “On the way to becoming doctors, medical students have to invest an incredible amount of time to study, so they often need to stay on campus, near their lecture halls, for extended periods. Less than a year from now, they’ll have the dedicated space they need. And much of the credit goes to the students – they stepped forward and made this happen.”

The center will include 26 study rooms of various sizes that accommodate from one to eight people, a kitchen and café area, an 800-square-foot porch and a 1,000-square-foot terrace.

The design architect is John Fisher of Fisher and Associates of Greeneville. The firm also designed the Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy building.

Dr. Tom Kwasigroch, associate dean for Student Affairs, said the students made an incredible gesture in voting to fund the Student Study Center.

“When you think of the average debt load students face by the time they graduate from medical school, it makes their decision to vote for an extra fee all the more impressive,” Kwasigroch said. “Some of them who are paying for it won’t even be here when it opens, so it shows how much this means to them.”

Medical student fees provided initial funding for the project, and the ETSU Office of University Advancement has received some donations that helped expand the scope.

University Advancement is still accepting donations that could help furnish the facility and retire the debt that students incurred in funding the center.

Naming opportunities for study rooms are available. For more information, call (423) 439-4242 or send e-mails to sloanc@etsu.edu.

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