It took almost 30 years, but if you ask Dean Katharyn A. May, she’ll tell you it was well worth the wait. “For the first time in our school’s 90-year history,” she said, “we have an environment specifically designed for nursing research and education.”
The new home for the School of Nursing is located in the heart of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s growing health sciences campus. Previously tucked away in the Clinical Science Center, the school was virtually invisible.
Named in honor of Signe Skott Cooper, the state-of-the-art facility recognizes Cooper’s lifelong commitment to the school. Cooper, who graduated in 1948 from the School of Nursing, campaigned diligently for the new building. In 2012, she helped break ground for the project that she so generously supported. She closely followed construction progress until her death in July 2013.
Dean May has a deep sense of gratitude to those who believed in the project early on. “Visionary women like Signe Cooper, Betty Spaeth, Barbara Gruendemann and Sue Ryden made significant personal gifts that turned a dream into a reality,” she said. Others who supported the project include Steve Skolaski and Mary Gulbrandsen of the Rennebohm Foundation, both of whom played a crucial role in championing the project; Linda Procci, who chaired the campaign steering committee; Connie Curran; Keith and Barbara Weikel; the UW Hospital and Clinics; Unity; the UW School of Medicine and Public Health; and the UW Medical Foundation as well as many other alumni and friends of the School of Nursing.
The $53.3 million, five-story building, which opened this fall, features what is probably the largest collaborative-learning classroom complex in the country.
“Cooper Hall will permit at least a 30 percent expansion in faculty numbers and overall enrollment in the coming years,” Dean May said. “With an aging population and increasingly complex health care, the demand for a well-educated nursing workforce will be significant.”
