Aurora University's expanded Alumni Hall is now in operation with more space available for nursing and social work programs.

-Photo by News Bulletin Staff

As a school social worker for DeKalb School District 428, Colleen Heffernan knows the value of teamwork. She regularly draws on the knowledge of fellow social workers, educators, nurses and legal experts to ensure children and families in her area receive the support they need.

Heffernan first learned the importance of collaboration while pursuing her master's degree in social work at Aurora University, which she received in 2009. That kind of interdisciplinary work will become an even more important part of the AU curriculum with the opening of the new Health and Human Services annex, which brings together the nursing and social work programs in the same building for the first time on the Aurora campus.
"By providing a new learning environment, the university is creating a central place for scholarship, networking and professional development," Heffernan said. "AU is cultivating an enduring learning community."
Faculty and staff started moving into the 25,000-square-foot addition to Alumni Hall in January, and the first classes are being held there this semester. The building includes offices, conference areas, a computer center, student lounge, two science laboratories and a dedicated nursing laboratory. The School of Social Work occupies the first floor, with the School of Nursing on the second floor and athletic space on the ground floor.
The annex will strengthen AU's social work and nursing curriculums and encourage students to team up with professionals outside of their fields.
Hope Smith, a senior nursing student, said the building will help AU students make critical connections early in their careers.
"With nursing, you always have to work within a community," she said. "It's important to have a relationship with social workers. They're the ones helping to discharge patients and get them back into the home."
The annex will encourage nursing and social work students to team up with other human services specialists and address the entire spectrum of patient needs: medical, psychological, social and legal. By interacting and working side-by-side with professionals in other fields, students will learn to care for the whole person.
As part of Alumni Hall, located next to the university's other academic and professional programs, the new space creates possibilities for nursing and social work students to learn together through multidisciplinary case studies and patient scenarios.
"Proximity will create an entirely new culture on the Aurora campus," said Fred McKenzie, Dean of the College of Professional Studies. "The new space is going to facilitate much more interaction, much more creativity, much more opportunity to expand and grow."
With an expanding program and growing national demand for nurses, the AU School of Nursing needs the annex space to replace its outdated and crowded facilities in Stephens Hall. The new classrooms will house advanced teaching equipment, including equipment to replicate clinical scenarios.
Carmella Moran, Director of the School of Nursing, said the tools will "help students learn prioritization, delegation and patient management" in a safe, supportive setting that promotes cooperation among students. The new and modern space should also lead to enrollment growth in the nursing program, she said.
"One of the aspects we focus on in our program is making nurses realize who else is part of the team that can provide care," Moran said.
The addition also sets the stage for the social work program's next chapter. Starting in 2011, Aurora University hopes to become one of only a dozen educational institutions in the country to offer a clinical doctorate in social work focused exclusively on clinical theory and practice, further strengthening AU's leadership in the field. The proposed D.S.W. program, which would start in the fall, is awaiting approval from the Higher Learning Commission.
Since coming to Aurora University from George Williams College in 1987, the School of Social Work has been scattered around the Aurora campus in various buildings. With the opening of the annex, social work faculty and students finally have a place to call home.
"It will be the first time in more than 20 years that all the social work faculty will be together consistently every day of the week," McKenzie said. "It's really going to be a culture shock for the students and faculty, but in a good way, because it's going to create an environment of collaboration that they've never had before."