New Purpose for an Old Building |
| Written by Brandi Brace | Misericordia Student |
 The building on Lake Street which formerly housed Frontier Communications has been purchased and renovated by Misericordia University in order to provide more space for the College of Health Sciences. Opening in January, the building will add three stories, 40,000 square foot of space, and 200 parking spaces for students on the Misericordia campus. There will also be a community room that can be utilized for volunteer organizations and outreach programs and an outer building of 2000 square feet which will provide another computer lab for students and faculty.Health Science majors require lab space, and this new building will give them exactly that. For instance, there will be a sensory motor room especially designed for autistic patients. The new building will also provide more room for the free/low cost clinics that are offered by the Misericordia Speech-Language and Hearing Center and the Physical Therapy Department. Accepting referrals from local schools and medical providers, the Speech-Language and Hearing Center uses their advanced technology and expertise in order to provide therapeutic intervention to both children and adults with speech and language impairments. Clinical students have treated over 1000 people who had “articulation problems, developmental language disorders, developmental apraxia, autism, oral-motor dysfunction, fluency and voice disorders, aphasia, sensory integration dysfunction and swallowing disorders.” The Physical Therapy clinics provides therapy for people who suffer from cardiovascular, pulmonary, and neurological disorders. Furthermore, the building will signal a “collaborative working-relationship between Misericordia University and the Commonwealth Medical College’s Wilkes-Barre-branch campus”. This relationship will be a great resource for Misericordia. While open to the whole University, the new space will be used primarily for the nursing, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and physical therapy majors. Already Misericordia graduates more health care professional than any other college or university in Northeastern Pennsylvania, but with the increased space, the number of graduates in five years will increase by 55%. With almost half of the full time student body enrolled in health sciences, this building will be a great asset to the students and faculty of Misericordia. Additionally with all the ways the community can be involved, the building will also be a great benefit to the Back Mountain as a whole. For more information log on to Misericordia’s website here or call (570) 674-6400. |
