GRAND FORKS — Physicians and University of North Dakota administrators testified Monda in support of a bill allocating $55 million to build out the university’s medical school facilities.

SB 2286 , introduced Jan. 20, would cover more than half of the cost of the three-story, 95,000-square-foot addition to the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dean Marjorie Jenkins told Senate lawmakers at an education committee meeting.

The bill’s four sponsors — Reps. Gretchen Dobervich and Jon Nelson and Sens. Tim Mathern and Robert Erbele — all serve on the medical school’s advisory council.

If the funding is approved, the university would look to consolidate several programs, including the entire College of Nursing and Professional Disciplines, under one roof in the new Health Professions Collaborative Facility.

“We’re bringing the nurses, the doctors, the (physical therapy) people — the whole gamut — together,” Mathern, D-Fargo, told lawmakers.

He was one of several proponents who said the shared space would create new opportunities for collaboration and interdisciplinary training between students in health care disciplines.

Administrators in particular emphasized a planned expansion of the university’s simulation education center, which allows students studying medicine and related fields to practice real-world medical scenarios.

“The limit of what we have now is we don’t have the capacity to do immersive, in-patient scenarios, like emergency rooms,” Jenkins told the Herald. “That’s where many of our students, especially those in rural areas, will be working.”

Nursing Dean Maridee Shogren said new simulation facilities would allow for more shared research between health care disciplines, particularly simulation research.

Right now, she said, most simulation research is narrowly focused.

“We can be among the first institutions in the nation to look at simulation research across multiple disciplines,” Shogren said.

The addition would replace space at the aging Columbia Hall and Nursing Buildings, both of which are in critically poor condition, according to a regular Facility Condition Assessment commissioned by the university.

The Nursing Building, built in 1976, needs $12.7 million in deferred maintenance, per the latest estimates from university facilities; Columbia Hall, on the other hand, is set to be torn down after the city fire marshals told the university it needed to either demolish the building or overhaul it to the tune of more than $48 million.

Jenkins said the addition would cost around $95 million, $40 million of which would be covered by donor contributions.

Finance and Operations Vice President Karla Mongeon-Stewart confirmed that figure to the Herald on Thursday; previous versions of the project, including for a separate facility, were previously pegged between $80 to $119 million.

SB 2286 also orders legislative management to examine “the funding necessary to provide education and internships statewide for all programs” in the Health Professions addition.

Jenkins said the study was meant to “optimize” the new space and show legislators it served the whole state’s health care needs, particularly rural areas.

She told the Herald it was a way to show the Legislature its “return on investment,” citing recent efforts to defund the medical school including a resolution introduced last week that would eliminate the constitutional statewide property tax levy of one mil received by the med school.

Several practicing physicians and representatives from the North Dakota Hospital Association and Altru Health System also spoke in favor or provided written testimony supporting the bill.

Funding for the addition was one of two large capital projects for which UND is seeking funding this legislative session.

The State Board of Higher Education included the university’s other request, some $56 million for the second phase of a planned STEM complex, in the higher ed system’s budget proposal, but not the Health Professions addition.

Joshua Irvine covers K-12 and higher education for the Grand Forks Herald. He can be reached at jirvine@gfherald.com.