Hundreds flock to see new nursing school
The official ribbon-cutting ceremony Sunday afternoon for the Richard and Lucille DeWitt School of Nursing was greeted by much fanfare and hundreds of guests.
The new $13 million building covers 41,000 square feet and resembles a modern hospital, complete with an emergency room, ambulance bay and an intensive care unit. On Sunday, it was hailed as the premier nursing school facility in the state and one of the top such buildings in all of the nation.
During his speech at Sunday's ceremony, Dr. Baker Pattillo, president of Stephen F. Austin State University, personally thanked the numerous individuals who came together in the past three years to help build the new nursing school.
"This has been a dream for many individuals for many, many years," Pattillo said. "Today, it becomes reality."
Surrounded by state officials, including Republican state Rep. Wayne Christian and Republican state Sen. Robert Nichols, the facility's namesake, Lucille DeWitt, beamed as Pattillo proclaimed her SFA's "Guardian of Nursing" and described the painstaking efforts to design the building so that it fit in with the existing building on the land.
The Dewitts donated the land, which once housed a Kentucky Fried Chicken distribution center that the Dewitts owned, to the university in 2006 on the condition that the project be started within three years, lest it be handed back over to their estate.
"I would like to say one other thing to you, Lucy, you are a shrewd business woman," Pattillo said. "And you knew what to do when you put that caveat about us having this building started within three years.
"Our regents took possession of this property on January 30, 2007. So I am proud to report to you today that, with some six days to spare, we have not only started the building, we have completed the most magnificent, state-of-the-art nursing building there is, named for you and your late Richard."
Dressed in SFA school colors of purple and white, Lucille Dewitt took the podium, telling the crowd that the completion of the building was the best thing she had ever done in her life, short of giving birth to her five children.
"It just breaks my heart that I hadn't thought of this before," she said.
"But it's still not really such a long time in the future that we will see what will come out of this building. These beautiful nurses and all that will follow them, all the loved ones that they will be taking care of in hospitals, for years and years to come. It just makes me proud in my heart to know that I was able to do it and I know my husband would have loved the idea, too."
Christian spoke of the legislative challenges he faced in Austin when trying to get a bill passed to allow for the tuition bonds needed to fund the construction of the building, saying that upon directly speaking with Gov. Rick Perry and stressing the importance of the matter, the governor threw his weight behind the bill, and it passed when no other university received such funding.
"Being a Lumberjack myself and being from East Texas, it's exciting to see something like this occur," Christian said. "It's great to come from a university that, because of the work done here, it implants in our hearts in rural East Texas that it's not impossible to dream when everyone says you can't. Never believe it, if the good Lord is on your side, and good folks like Mrs. Lucy, things will move and things will get done."
The school's director of the nursing program for the past 19 years, Dr. Glenda Walker, shared her thoughts with the crowd as well and thanked the many unsung heroes who have worked to bring the building to life for hundreds of nursing students.
"This is a day of love, sharing and excellence," Walker said. "Today means that the impossible dream is possible."
A certificate recognizing Sunday's grand opening issued by Governor Perry was read aloud to the crowd, and a letter from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) was also read in support of the new facility. Special thanks was also given to Nichols, who filed the companion bill to Christian's, which was needed to complete the funding process for the building.
SFA's nursing program boasts a licensure rate of 98 percent, the highest of any bachelor of science in nursing program in the state, and currently has an enrolment of 855 students, which is the second largest major enrollment at the university.
The patient simulation center inside one of the building's wings is also named for longtime SFA supporters Ed and Gwen Cole of Nacogdoches.
The official ribbon-cutting ceremony Sunday afternoon for the Richard and Lucille DeWitt School of Nursing was greeted by much fanfare and hundreds of guests.
The new $13 million building covers 41,000 square feet and resembles a modern hospital, complete with an emergency room, ambulance bay and an intensive care unit. On Sunday, it was hailed as the premier nursing school facility in the state and one of the top such buildings in all of the nation.
During his speech at Sunday's ceremony, Dr. Baker Pattillo, president of Stephen F. Austin State University, personally thanked the numerous individuals who came together in the past three years to help build the new nursing school.
"This has been a dream for many individuals for many, many years," Pattillo said. "Today, it becomes reality."
Surrounded by state officials, including Republican state Rep. Wayne Christian and Republican state Sen. Robert Nichols, the facility's namesake, Lucille DeWitt, beamed as Pattillo proclaimed her SFA's "Guardian of Nursing" and described the painstaking efforts to design the building so that it fit in with the existing building on the land.
The Dewitts donated the land, which once housed a Kentucky Fried Chicken distribution center that the Dewitts owned, to the university in 2006 on the condition that the project be started within three years, lest it be handed back over to their estate.
"I would like to say one other thing to you, Lucy, you are a shrewd business woman," Pattillo said. "And you knew what to do when you put that caveat about us having this building started within three years.
"Our regents took possession of this property on January 30, 2007. So I am proud to report to you today that, with some six days to spare, we have not only started the building, we have completed the most magnificent, state-of-the-art nursing building there is, named for you and your late Richard."
Dressed in SFA school colors of purple and white, Lucille Dewitt took the podium, telling the crowd that the completion of the building was the best thing she had ever done in her life, short of giving birth to her five children.
"It just breaks my heart that I hadn't thought of this before," she said.
"But it's still not really such a long time in the future that we will see what will come out of this building. These beautiful nurses and all that will follow them, all the loved ones that they will be taking care of in hospitals, for years and years to come. It just makes me proud in my heart to know that I was able to do it and I know my husband would have loved the idea, too."
Christian spoke of the legislative challenges he faced in Austin when trying to get a bill passed to allow for the tuition bonds needed to fund the construction of the building, saying that upon directly speaking with Gov. Rick Perry and stressing the importance of the matter, the governor threw his weight behind the bill, and it passed when no other university received such funding.
"Being a Lumberjack myself and being from East Texas, it's exciting to see something like this occur," Christian said. "It's great to come from a university that, because of the work done here, it implants in our hearts in rural East Texas that it's not impossible to dream when everyone says you can't. Never believe it, if the good Lord is on your side, and good folks like Mrs. Lucy, things will move and things will get done."
The school's director of the nursing program for the past 19 years, Dr. Glenda Walker, shared her thoughts with the crowd as well and thanked the many unsung heroes who have worked to bring the building to life for hundreds of nursing students.
"This is a day of love, sharing and excellence," Walker said. "Today means that the impossible dream is possible."
A certificate recognizing Sunday's grand opening issued by Governor Perry was read aloud to the crowd, and a letter from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) was also read in support of the new facility. Special thanks was also given to Nichols, who filed the companion bill to Christian's, which was needed to complete the funding process for the building.
SFA's nursing program boasts a licensure rate of 98 percent, the highest of any bachelor of science in nursing program in the state, and currently has an enrolment of 855 students, which is the second largest major enrollment at the university.
The patient simulation center inside one of the building's wings is also named for longtime SFA supporters Ed and Gwen Cole of Nacogdoches.