Missouri State University celebrated the opening of the Mercy Athletic Training Lab at a ceremony Wednesday at Ann Kampeter Health and Sciences Hall. And Missouri State President Biff Williams announced a donation from Mercy that made the lab possible.
The lab is part of renovations at Kampeter Hall that are finally finished six years after they started. Phase one was finished in 2022. Two years later, phase two began. Kampeter Hall was once known as the Professional Building where doctors practiced medicine. It is now a place where students train for careers in the medical field.
Williams said the new, modern learning spaces at Kampeter allow those students to get real-world experience.
"We have modern labs, simulation spaces. We have clinical environments. It's the exact replica of where these students are going to work when they get done," he said, "and we couldn't do that without state-of-the-art facilities. It also strengthens the hands-on kinesthetic learning, experiential learning experiences where they are going to be able to not only learn theoretically, but they're actually practicing."
Sheridan Frazier, a second-year student in the Master of Athletic Training program at Mo State, told those gathered for the event that the program has allowed her to build the foundation for her future career.
"I've spent countless hours listening intently to lectures, taking notes, and practicing hands on skills that serve me in everyday practice, including emergency care, injury evaluation, and therapeutic interventions," she said. "We've completed spine boarding scenarios, countless tape jobs, mock injury evaluations, and functional return to play testing in the space that it provides."
Kampeter Hall is also home to the MSU Collaborative Care Clinic, which offers speech-language pathology, counseling, audiology and psychology services free of charge, provided by graduate students in the McQueary College of Health and Human Services. MSU celebrated the opening of the clinic in February.
Dean of the McQueary College Mark Smith said the building has been evolving for close to a century. They decided not to do a ribbon-cutting, he said, because the building was never closed during renovations.
"We have had over 4,700 students in the McQueary College," he said. "That's a significant increase from where we were five, six, seven years ago and a very important movement, and the building is a part of that."
But he said the heartbeat of the building is the people that are in it.
Phase 1, according to Missouri State, included dedicated student study spaces, a centralized MCHHS Student Success and Advisement Center, two upgraded classrooms, newly renovated bathrooms on all floors, upgrades to all common spaces and to administrative suites and significant upgrades to the heating and cooling systems in the building.
Phase 2 included new and updated technology throughout the building, including integrated electronic records in the Collaborative Care Clinic, audiovisual layouts and display systems for classrooms and advanced audiology equipment in the speech-language research areas.
The project added a new fire alarm system with voice evacuation/annunciation capabilities, accessible doors, electronic card access with activity logging and additional security cameras.
New furniture was installed throughout renovated classrooms, the clinic, student spaces and offices.
