FYI: http://www.clarionledger.com/article...335/1001/RSS01

Senior Joseph Butler, like his older brother Jason, is pursuing a nursing degree at the University of Southern Mississippi.

But Jason completed his training in 2006, while Joseph will wrap up in the spring. That doesn't seem like a big difference, but the two have had a different experience.

"There were about 38 students in his class," Joseph Butler said. "Last year, there were close to 80 in mine."

The trouble is that their current location has them crawling on top of each other. There are 550 undergraduate and graduate nursing students, with another 450 students in the pre-nursing program fulfilling their core courses.

"If another faculty member came, we would have to put them in the broom closet," Nursing Director Katherine Nugent said.

The crunch has school officials awaiting breaking ground on a $27 million building to relieve the stress. The state College Board approved initiation of the project in September 2009.

The plans have been drawn: A new three-story, 75,000-square-foot building that will sit along Ross and Montague boulevards behind The Theater and Dance Building. The projected size is almost double the current 40,000-square-foot structure built in 1975.

But laying down blueprints is just half the battle. As it stands, construction is two years away from even beginning.

"From a planning standpoint, things are far along. It's just lining up the funding," said Mike Forster, dean of the College of Health.
Funding will come from three sources, as outlined by Forster.

Approximately $8 million in private donations. A university rule implemented by the President Martha Saunders administration mandates that at least 10 percent of a new building's value must be raised privately for upkeep once it is completed. The rule is a response to the school's struggle to maintain an increasing number of facilities with a stagnating budget.

"We struggle to maintain the buildings we have, and the state is giving us less each year," Saunders said. "It is becoming more important than ever to find private funding to endow our buildings. It is prudent of us to ensure the long-range health of our facilities by establishing a fund for their maintenance before we build them."

Another $10 million or so from federal sources. For the past three years, Sen. Thad Cochran has secured a total of $5.87 million in federal funds for the project, according to spokesman Chris Gallegos. Cochran is working to pin down another $6 million as part of the FY 2011 Labor-HHS Appropriations Bill.

Forster said the remainder will come from state sources.

Nursing officials said they have been pushing for a new facility for while.

"It's been a long quest. The need for a new nursing facility has been recognized for at least a decade," Forster said.