Winona State University-Rochester expands downtown

Aug. 17—ROCHESTER — As a top administrator at Winona State University-Rochester, Julie Anderson has been overseeing booming growth in her nursing programs.

The programs in her graduate nursing department in Rochester, for example, have more than doubled in enrollment — 280 students this fall from more than 100 students five years ago — reflecting the intense demand for professionals in the health care industry.

As WSU-Rochester has grown, it has set its sights on growing downtown.

This summer, it shifted the grad nursing department from Rochester Community and Technical College, where it had long been housed, to WSU-Rochester's downtown digs at 400 South Broadway. The move signaled a continuing expansion of the university's downtown presence.

"It's so great to be downtown, because we're right in the heart of it," Anderson said.

The department and its 20 full-time faculty and staff now occupy the second floor of the WSU-Rochester building, which was extensively renovated to accommodate the move.

The renovation cost $305,000 and "no surface was left untouched," Anderson said. The floor previously housed the public defender's office.

The move made sense for WSU for reasons both of space and convenience for students, Anderson said.

"We are outgrowing our space in the Rochester area. We had graduate faculty at three different locations at the RCTC building," Anderson said. "It's a more central location for us downtown."

Anderson said the building is surrounded by WSU's partners in acute care, ambulatory care and the nonprofit sector. Limb Lab, a prosthetic and orthotic business, occupies the first floor of the building.

"We literally see some of our students walk by in front of our building as they leave work at Mayo Clinic," she said. "Having a central hub downtown, in the midst of a medical village, is wonderful."

Anderson said WSU-Rochester's undergraduate nursing program, which is also growing, will remain at RCTC, as will its simulation space for grad nursing students and other programs. But over time, the goal is to move all of WSU-Rochester's programs out of RCTC and consolidate them under one roof. But there is no timetable.

"Our programs are growing in undergrad nursing, as well as grad nursing, And, so, yes, we are very space challenged in our location at RCTC," she said.

WSU has been a presence in Rochester since it began offering education classes in 1917. Since then, it has housed its education, nursing and other programs all over Rochester during the last century

Over the decades, nursing classes have been taught at Rochester State Hospital and Graham Arena. When new programs in business, accounting and psychology were offered in the early 1980s, they were held at the Northrop School in north Rochester.

In 1986, all WSU-Rochester programs moved to East Hall on what is today RCTC. In 1993, University Center Rochester was launched at RCTC, a shared educational enterprise between RCTC, WSU-Rochester and University of Minnesota-Rochester.

That three-schools-in-one-campus concept ended when UMR in 2007 moved into new facilities at University Square in downtown Rochester.

Ten years later, WSU began the process of shifting to downtown when it opened its Broadway building.

Anderson said its grad programs are offered to students looking to become family nurse practitioners or acute care nurse practitioners in ICUs. Others are looking to be educators or fill leadership posts in a hospital or clinic.

She said WSU-Rochester still faces space challenges as it grows.

"This is a fantastic transition for us and a great space for us right now," Anderson said. "It doesn't allow for a lot of growth, but we're very happy with the space."