Massasoit Awarded $30 Million Higher Education Capital Grant for Science, Nursing, and Allied Health Building Renovations
April 15, 2022 – Brockton – Massasoit President Ray DiPasquale is excited to share that the college has been named as a recipient in the latest round of Higher Education Capital Grants for the Commonwealth’s public colleges and universities. Massasoit will receive $30 million in state funding for the Science, Nursing & Allied Health “Transformation through Renovation” project. The announcement was made Wednesday at a press conference at Salem State University, where Governor Charlie Baker and Lt. Governor Karyn Polito shared the investment news with college presidents, the state’s higher education leadership, and members of the legislature.
“We are very grateful for the support and funding from Governor Baker, Lt. Governor Polito, Education Secretary James Peyser, Commissioner of the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance Carol Gladstone, and all others who made this possible,” said DiPasquale. “Our campus community is thrilled to be able to bring this project to fruition. It will certainly reshape the future for our college and the south shore as we train the next generation of STEM & healthcare leaders.”
“These capital projects at our state colleges and universities will help to further expand capacity in the STEM workforce and grow enrollment at these institutions,” said Lt. Governor Karyn Polito. “We are glad to support these projects and invest in our public institutions of higher education.”
Massasoit’s Transformation through Renovation total cost is estimated to be $41 million. By renovating 63,000 gross square feet, affecting 30 percent of the Brockton campus’s buildings, the college will have flexible lab spaces that are compatible with different disciplines and are supportive of remote instruction as enrollment demands continue to change. New state-of-the-art facilities will allow students to work more collaboratively using the latest technologies.
Ten associate degree programs will benefit, including: Nurse Education, Respiratory Care, and Radiologic Technology from Allied Health; the Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, and Engineering Transfer-Chemical STEM programs; as well as Liberal Arts Transfer and Computer Science Transfer. The Liberal Arts building will be converted to Science, while the Science building is converted into the Nursing & Allied Health space. Liberal Arts will be relocated to the vacated Allied Health space.
“This past fall, 34 percent of our students were enrolled in one of the programs that will benefit the most from the Transformation through Renovation. Our graduates are on the front lines of healthcare and are embedded in science and research institutions across the state,” said DiPasquale.
Once complete, the project also presents an opportunity for local healthcare providers to up-skill their entry level workforce through Massasoit to meet the increasing demand for skilled healthcare workers. Nineteen percent of all workers in southeastern Mass. are employed in healthcare or social assistance – the largest industry cluster within the region. And by 2024, 20,000 more jobs are expected to be created in the state’s life science industry.
“We will continue to provide our local communities with updates as our Transformation through Renovation gets underway,” said DiPasquale.