Hertz Hall is set to be demolished by the end of February 2019. CWU plans to construct a new health sciences facility in its place, according to CWU Chief of Staff Linda Schactler.

Hertz Hall has been a part of the CWU campus since 1962. Schactler said that in its old age, the building has a number of problems including improper heating and cooling, a lack of insulation and inadequate internet access.

“It’s just way past its prime, and since it was created for a specialized purpose, music, and we now have a music building, the decision was made in 2010 to simply replace that building [Hertz] with a different building, with a different purpose,” Schactler said.

According to Vice President of Operations Andreas Bohman, Hertz is one of numerous buildings on campus that have been under a building-condition assessment. He is particularly interested in the buildings in the northern part of campus including Farrell Hall and Brooks Library.

Bohman said that most of the buildings on north campus were built in the 1960s and 1970s. He said that CWU keeps track of the condition of the buildings using a facilities condition index (FCI). The FCI uses data provided by maintenance activities to rank which buildings are in the worst and best condition.

“Even though we do invest in preventive maintenance, a building is only designed to last so long, they don’t last forever,” Bohman said.

New Science Health Facility

According to Schactler, CWU first requested funding for the pre-design of the new facility in 2010. In 2011, $300,000 in state funding was awarded to CWU to begin pre-design. CWU then received $4.3 million in the 2015-2017 biennium for the design phase, and $23 million in January 2018 to begin phase one (which includes the demolition of Hertz).

Schactler said that CWU has requested $35 million from the state in their 2019-2021 budget request. According to the state capital budget priorities document provided by Schactler, the health sciences building was CWU’s top priority in the request. The document also states that the health sciences project was awarded the highest score for any building project proposed by any four-year universities for the 2019-2021 period, in an assessment produced by the Office of Financial Management.

Schactler said that the health sciences building will be the last edition to the science neighborhood. She said that CWU began looking into the possibility of forming a science neighborhood in 2007, with the intent of grouping all the science majors together to allow for more collaboration between them.

“We literally have the best science facilities on any comprehensive university in the state, and this will cap it off,” Schatler said.

According to the Department of Nutrition’s Exercise and Health Sciences Chair Vincent Nethery, the main issue that the faculty and students of health sciences face is separation. Nethery said that health science majors are distributed among five different buildings on campus including Black Hall, Michaelsen Hall, Farrell Hall and Science buildings I & II.

“There’s a lack of cohesion and a lack of connectivity attached to the faculty and to the elements of the programs, which is certainly a challenge, but when you don’t have a building you work with what you’ve got,” Nethery said.

Nethery said the new facility would provide a lot of education synergies for health science students. For example, the new building will feature a cadaver laboratory, which according to Nethery, could be utilized by exercise science students who want to get a better look at the inner workings of various body parts.

Nethery said that the health sciences department services over 600 students, along with general education components and graduate studies. He said that health science careers like public health, health care and specialty programs like emergency medical technician training have a high societal demand, and that demand is reflected in the growth of the department.

According to Nethery, the department was started in 2008, and was dedicated mostly to physical education and health education teaching programs. He said they began with about 75 students. Now, with over 600, health sciences needs room to grow.

“It’s very exciting to have a facility that actually has the spaces and functionality that is need to educate student appropriately,” Nethery said.