University STEM Projects to Get Boost from Higher Education Capital Financing Grants

New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education Rochelle R. Hendricks sent the legislature a certified list of 35 higher education capital-construction project grants that will boost technology, support the health sciences and renovate laboratories and classrooms at 32 institutions across New Jersey.  Many of the projects will benefit STEM programs at colleges, universities and community colleges throughout the state.

Here are some of the programs:

Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken) has been approved for almost $19.3 million to replace an obsolete and deteriorating three-story building and a parking lot with an 88,950-square-foot, state-of-the-art, technology-equipped instructional and research building. The project will include 11 high-tech smart classrooms; instructional, research and lab facilities for the Department of Computer Science; and labs for healthcare innovation, digital learning, smart energy systems and innovation and design.

NJIT (Newark) will receive $20 million for an integrated makerspace that will require major renovations; the makerspace will include a collaborative learning environment for real-world technology-focused education.

At Rowan University (Glassboro), almost $10 million was granted for an expansion of the school’s Joint Health Sciences Center, including an additional floor “designed as an incubator space for interdisciplinary and integrative translational research.”

Rutgers University (Newark campus) has been approved for $9.5 million, which will go towards major renovations at Olson Hall, a chemistry lab teaching facility built in 1970.

At Montclair State University (Montclair), $7 million will go towards the renovation and expansion of a 52-year old building called “Mallory Hall,” which is used for the school’s information technology program. The plan includes a “wide range of highly specialized instructional spaces, such as that for Cyber Security and Forensic and Data Science and specialized research labs.”

New Jersey City University (Jersey City) will receive $5.2 million to transform a building into a nursing education center for students seeking professional careers in healthcare.

The College of New Jersey (Ewing) is slated for $8 million to renovate Armstrong Hall, which houses the School of Engineering and was originally built in 1961. The building has been renovated before, and the college already has a new STEM building, but “the renovation will provide critically needed lab and program spaces” and remedy deficiencies in the current structure.

Bloomfield College (Bloomfield) will receive a million dollars, which will go towards replacing the roof at Westminster Hall, a historic building that’s home to the college’s Creative Arts & Technology program.

Centenary College (Hackettstown) is slated for $38,295, to be used for the conversion of space at the college’s Lackland Center into STEM classrooms for students in the Education Department.

At the College of Saint Elizabeth (Morristown), $350,000 will be put toward STEM educational facility renovations that will convert an outdated and unused physics lab into a student computer lab.

Drew University (Madison) will use part of its $1 million grant to renovate and relocate the Math and Science Resource Center within the Hall of Sciences building and to renovate Biology Department labs.

Fairleigh Dickinson University (Florham Park campus), will use the more than $2.8 million it will receive to renovate and rehab the third floor of its building at 230 Park Ave, in Florham Park, mostly for the university’s pharmacy program. An inter-professional center will also house programs in pharmacy, nursing and other future health sciences programs. “The space will feature a simulation lab equipped with patient simulators and a simulated cadaver lab,” among other things.

At Monmouth University (West Long Branch), a total of $5 million has been put aside for the renovation of the three-story Thomas A. Edison Science Hall, including classrooms, labs, research areas, etc. “A vivarium and herbarium will be constructed in the building to support research. The Urban Coast Institute will be located in the building.”

Rider University’s Science and Technology Center (Lawrenceville) will get $1 million for an upgrade of the existing instructional spaces on the first floor.

Saint Peter’s University (Jersey City) has been approved for $1 million for upgrades of existing buildings, as well as technology infrastructure improvements at the IT Data Center, on its West Campus.

Brookdale Community College (Lincroft) will receive $1.2 million for the renovation of five laboratories for general science, anatomy and physiology and environmental science.

Rowan College at Burlington County will receive $5.1 million for a variety of projects, including renovations of spaces for the Health Sciences Division and the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Division on the Mount Laurel campus.

At Camden County College (Camden), $5.8 has been allocated to the development of a “Health Careers Education Facility,” focused on educating and training residents of Camden.

Passaic County Community College’s allocation of $1.2 million will be used for the “renovation of a recently purchased, vacant 20,000 [square foot] warehouse on the College’s main campus in downtown Paterson.” It will be turned into an advanced technology center that will support technical-skills training for low-income residents of northern New Jersey, and will become the home of the college’s new and existing applied technology programs.

At Union County College, almost $4 million will be used for Phase II of work on the college’s Health Sciences Building, on the Plainfield campus. When the building is complete, it will provide space for three high-priority allied health programs, new computer classrooms and workstations for all campus programs.