TWU Dallas Center Building Campaign
Parkland Campus Presbyterian Campus
TWU's Dallas History: Parkland and Presbyterian
The Institute of Health Sciences - Dallas Center has two locations: The Parkland campus, near Parkland Memorial Hospital, and the Presbyterian campus, adjacent to Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. The Institute provides excellent educational experiences in Nursing, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Business Administration, Library Sciences, Health Care Administration, and neurological rehabilitation specifically for stroke patients.
Past: Of the two campuses, Parkland was established first, initially through an agreement with Parkland Memorial Hospital in 1954 that called for TWU nursing students to study in Denton and obtain their clinical training at Parkland Memorial Hospital. This model prevailed until 1964 when TWU proposed a $2 million dollar construction project to build a nursing educational building and a 7-story dormitory for nursing students. By the time the new Parkland campus was constructed in 1966 and dedicated by Governor John Connolly, TWU had the largest nationally accredited College of Nursing in the entire south. Funding for the project came in the form of three federal grants, a $1 million dollar TWU bond, and private gifts.
At the dedication ceremony of the new TWU Parkland campus, then Dean of Nursing, Fay Pannell, noted in her remarks, “our history in this College of Nursing shows that this facility will be adequate for only a short period of time.” In the intervening years, TWU through creative scheduling and online education has accommodated growth, but the time has come to build a new facility that allows TWU to educate a larger workforce of healthcare professionals competent in medical technology who will best serve patient care.
While the Parkland campus was marking its 10th anniversary, TWU was planning for a second Dallas campus at Presbyterian Hospital. Through collaboration with Presbyterian Hospital and funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Division of Nursing, a $2 million dollar construction project was launched with HHS providing 75% of construction costs.
On October 6, 1977, the two-story; 30,000 square foot facility at Presbyterian was dedicated. TWU’s newest health sciences educational facility was designed to accommodate 400 students, had 9 major classrooms, a library, a reading room, a commuter work-study lounge, and a multi-purpose lab as well as a media-education room, administration and faculty offices, and an impressive 240-seat auditorium. The facility also had an enclosed third floor for expected expansion. In 1980, private giving funded the completion of the third floor that added another 20,000 square feet of space. Mr. James W. Aston chaired the $500,000 funding drive.
In 1992, The Stroke Center – Dallas was established at the Parkland campus to provide state-of-the-art treatment and training in neurological rehabilitation specifically for stroke patients.
Present: Since first opening in 1966, the TWU Parkland and Presbyterian campuses combined have become a full Institute of Health Sciences dedicated to educating health care professionals in the following disciplines:
|
|
Fall 2007 total enrollment: 946 |
|
Future: When a university is educating and producing some of the nation’s finest health care providers, it is incumbent on that university to provide a learning environment as good as its students and faculty. TWU’s current facility is outdated by industry standards and needs to be replaced.
The need for this project is driven by the national acute shortage of nursing and other healthcare providers. In a report released in April 2006, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) projects that nursing schools must increase the number of graduates by 90 percent in order to adequately address the nursing shortage. By the year 2020, HRSA projects that more than one million new Registered Nurses (RNs) will be needed in the U.S. healthcare system to meet the demand for nursing care. Texas, meanwhile, will face a shortfall of 27,000 RNs by 2010, according to the Texas Hospital Association.
Additionally, since an elderly population is vulnerable to chronic and debilitating conditions requiring therapeutic care, the demand for new physical and occupational therapists is expected to increase by 35 percent nationally from 2002-2012 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006 (BLS)). Also, the baby-boom generation is entering the prime age for heart attacks and strokes, increasing the demand for rehabilitation. Further, young people will need therapy services as technological advances save the lives of a larger proportion of newborns with severe birth defects (BLS, 2007). TWU’s graduate program in physical therapy ranks first among public universities in Texas and offers the only Ph.D. program in physical therapy in Texas.
TWU currently graduates more nurses and other health care professionals (including physical and occupational therapists) than any other public institution in Texas. Just as in 1966, the new Institute of Health Sciences - Dallas Center will allow TWU to increase enrollment dramatically thereby addressing the workforce shortage of nurses and healthcare professionals in the DFW metroplex and in Texas. TWU’s Institute of Health Sciences - Dallas Center will continue not only to respond to the changing needs of the healthcare workforce, but provide operational efficiencies in an educational environment that is state-of-the-art.
The funding for this project will be a public/private venture modeled after our success in funding TWU’s new Institute of Health Sciences - Houston Center (opened August, 2006). Both the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Legislature have complimented TWU on its entrepreneurial approach to funding new educational facilities.
Texas Woman's University
Institutional Development
P.O. Box 425618
Denton, TX 76204-5618
(940) 898-3863
(940) 898-3877 fax
development@twu.edu