College to open health sciences school, art center

New additions are popping up at Emory & Henry College.

The college has begun work on the $21.8 million Woodrow W. McGlothlin Center for the Arts, scheduled to be finished in 2015.

Emory & Henry also is developing a school of health sciences at the former Smyth County Community Hospital campus in Marion.   The college decided to start the school not only because of the available space, but also because of research indicating a need for more health professionals in the region. “So, we are trying to both meet a need for our community as well as a need for potential professionals in this area,” says Dirk Moore, the college’s director of public relations. The college’s central campus is in the village of Emory, about 20 miles from Marion.

A doctoral program in physical therapy will start at the Marion campus next summer, Moore says. Other health sciences programs still are being developed.
The 40,000-square-foot center for the arts will include a 450-seat theater, a stage, a black box theater, dressing rooms, production areas, gallery space and a three-dimensional design studio. Donations for the center from The McGlothlin Foundation and Woodrow W. McGlothlin totaled $7 million.

Emory & Henry also received an $8.7 million USDA Rural Development loan for the McGlothlin Center and $13.1 million from gifts, interest on gifts, pledges and board-designated bequests.  “We do think this will affect in a positive way our ability to attract students who are interested in the arts,” says Jake P. Schrum, who became Emory & Henry’s president in August.

This fall Emory & Henry also opened the doors to a $7.5 million, 119-bed residence hall. The building’s design reduces the amount of outside air coming into the residence hall, helping keep heating and cooling costs down. The building also has a geothermal heating and cooling system.

Last year, Emory & Henry completed the James H. Brooks Field House, which provides classrooms, locker rooms and meeting space for the college’s athletics program.
Emory & Henry attracted one of its largest freshman classes this fall, Moore says. Total enrollment is 959, up from 944 last year.