UNC School of Nursing begins $94M expansion to address nursing shortage, increase enrollment by 50% in new education building set to finish in 2026. With $45M state funding, $6.8M gift, and continued fundraising efforts, the project aims to advance patient care and provide state-of-the-art facilities.
Rendering courtesy of the University of North Carolina School of Nursing
Rendering of the new Nursing Education Building
Dignitaries, alumni, donors and guests gathered in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Oct. 25 in Kenan Stadium's Blue Zone for a groundbreaking ceremony prior to the expansion of the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Nursing's education building.
The renewal of Carrington Hall, home to one of UNC's top performing schools, is taking another step forward with construction now set to begin on the updated facility. The $94 million project is an effort to both increase class sizes and the overall nursing workforce while replacing half of an aging facility and adding another 20,000 sq. ft., according to Chapelboro.com.
During the event, School of Nursing Dean Valerie Howard said the new education building represents a call to action to help address the ongoing nursing shortage in North Carolina and across the country, while also being an investment in the advancement of patient care.
"This groundbreaking is more than a physical milestone," she explained. "It is a symbol of our ongoing commitment to advance health for all. From accessible education and service, through translatable scholarship, through meaningful partnerships — local and global — ensures that Carolina nurses will meet and lead the profession through the challenges of today and those of tomorrow."
Chapelboro.com, the online news site for WCHL-AM radio in Chapel Hill, reported that the effort to improve and expand Carrington Hall has already been under way since March, when the building's 55-year-old wing was demolished. Now that that process is nearly complete, construction of a 110,000-sq.-ft. structure will begin soon.
The new education building will feature not only more space for expanded classes, simulations and clinical learning, but also updated technology to help students prepare for cutting-edge work and care in their fields. Once finished, it will connect with the Carrington Hall wing that was built in 2005, which was designed similar to the wing that was razed.
At the groundbreaking, UNC Provost Chris Clemens described the new education facility as "a little bit of the act of imagination, but it's getting a little more real."
"This building project has been a long time coming and it's great now to see it come to fruition," he added. "We have a top-ranked public nursing school, and even with subpar facilities and simulation space, we've been able to rock in the area of nursing. So, imagine with a state-of-the-art facility what this school is going to be able to do."
Current projections of North Carolina's nursing workforce predict there will be a shortage of 12,500 nurses by 2033. Several studies showed the profession would suffer losses due to attrition rates long before the COVID-19 pandemic led to even more stresses on the healthcare industry.
The new education building, though, will allow UNC's School of Nursing to build its student body, with the university saying it hopes to increase enrollment by 50 percent.
With the demolition of the older wing, though, it means the School of Nursing has already had to operate differently in the last academic year. The original west wing was vacated in October 2023, leading to faculty and classes having to be shifted to temporary locations within nearby health sciences and School of Medicine buildings.
The nursing simulation lab, meanwhile, moved to UNC School of Nursing's temporary space within the ITS Manning building off Chapel Hill's Manning Drive. With 12,128 sq. ft. of vacant space, it should easily accommodate the nursing program during construction at Carrington Hall and potentially serve as a hub for overflow classes following the new building's completion.
UNC Nursing School officials noted that the Carrington Hall renewal construction is slated to be completed in the fall of 2026.
Project Fundraising to Continue
The North Carolina General Assembly committed $45 million to the project back in 2020, with additional support coming from donors, including a $6.8 million gift from the Helene Fuld Health Trust in 2021. The school and university are still seeking $10 million from private donations to cover the remaining costs, Chapelboro.com learned from organizers of the groundbreaking.
Helping fund some of those increased class sizes and opportunities for nursing students, though, is philanthropist William Conway. The billionaire investor was the keynote speaker at the recent construction kickoff, and shared his encouragement to nursing students, current professionals and donors to find ways to step up and help when possible.
An undergraduate student in the nursing program, Ricarte Jin Atienza, also spoke as a recipient of a Conway scholarship — describing the tandem of the scholarship program and upcoming new facility as powerful tools to help future members of the healthcare workforce.
"We have the opportunity," said Atienza, "to redefine nursing for a new era, to lead with integrity and to improve lives in ways that we can't even begin to imagine yet. And I'm confident this new nursing education building will be the foundation where this leadership will be cultivated."
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