Help Us Renovate Concordia's Science Labs
Why New Laboratory Space is Needed
This new laboratory space is critical for Concordia University to meet the current and future needs of our students (Read the full case statement). We are beyond capacity and with increased student numbers studying hard sciences, lab time is at a premium. After teaching degrees, science pathway careers are the most in demand at Concordia University. With more laboratories, we will be more able to prepare professionals to work in the Applied Sciences; without them, our growing Science and Nursing programs will be at risk.
Accommodating Tremendous Growth
Concordia University has been experiencing tremendous growth in enrollment in recent years. Our students numbered 924 in 2000; 2,500 students have attended Concordia in 2010-11, including our largest ever incoming class. Since 2000-01, Concordia University has more than tripled our enrollment of science and allied health majors. This year, 91 freshmen were admitted into Pre-Nursing, joining 69 second-year Pre-Nursing students, who must take Biology, Chemistry, Microbiology, and Anatomy & Physiology before being accepted into the Nursing program. A new program in Exercise Science that has a major requirement for science courses has been added and has already attracted 70 enthusiastic majors. All freshmen Biology and Chemistry students are required to take Biology 211/212 and CHM 211/212 as part of the core requirements; each course has a required hands-on laboratory component. Managing this interest in Applied Sciences is a great problem to have and is a testament to the quality of our programs.
Further Ensuring Quality of Students
Ganesh Cherala, PhD, Assistant Professor of the OHSU/OSU College of Pharmacy agrees on the quality of Concordia students, "I have had two Concordia students so far in my lab. Their knowledge and expertise made it easy to establish them as techs here. Less time was required to train them because their experience with molecular biology is strong, they have a good understanding, and can work well in a team. By expanding the capacities of your program at Concordia, you would be able to expand the number of capable students which we could then attract to work with us in our labs. This Concordia University lab expansion would be valuable to us too."