New Nursing Education Building FAQs

Carolina Nursing’s home, Carrington Hall, has a rich history of more than fifty years, but today its classrooms leak, many offices are closed due to leeching asbestos, its electrical systems create safety hazards, and its hallways and public spaces are over-crowded and fail to comply with ADA standards.

These shortcomings inhibit the ability of our faculty to perform the instruction and research that are crucial to advancing our profession. They impede the course of learning for our future nurses. And, importantly, they limit the number of qualified students we can accept into our program.

As a world-class center of teaching, research, and service, we are long overdue for a building that matches our reputation for excellence. To address the shortcomings of our current facility, Carolina Nursing is in the design phase of a new Nursing Education Building.

A new home for Carolina Nursing provides at once a thrilling opportunity and a weighty responsibility: to design a building that not only represents, but fosters, the quality and reputation of the program it houses.

The new Nursing Education Building will allow us to help address the critical nurse shortage in North Carolina by enabling larger class sizes. This means more Carolina Nurses entering the workforce to provide quality, compassionate care on the frontlines of our health care systems.

The new Nursing Education Building will be 110,000 square feet — that’s 20,000 square feet larger than our existing space — and will provide a modern structure complete with the latest technologies to better prepare students.

This world-class facility will enable an increase in class sizes, which means more Carolina Nurses entering the workforce each year to provide quality, compassionate care on the frontlines of our health care systems.  

About two and a half years. Demolition is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2023, and we expect the new building to open its doors in the spring of 2026.  

Simulation labs and student support offices will be relocated to ITS Manning while the new Nursing Education Building is under construction. Additional office space has been secured at the UNC Administrative Office Building for non-student-facing departments.

We’ve request classroom spaces in local health sciences buildings, including Bondurant Hall and the Medical Biomolecular Research Building (MBRB). Your associate deans and/or instructors will be in touch as soon as the classroom assignments for the fall semester have been finalized.

Yes! We plan to hold a Groundbreaking Ceremony in April of 2024 and will send invitations once the date and time has been finalized.  

Recognizing the urgent need for more nurses to deliver exceptional healthcare to its citizens, the North Carolina legislature has provided partial funding for the new Nursing Education Building. However, we still need to raise an additional $20 million in private funding to fulfill this vision. 

We’re grateful for your support! Please visit the Building the Future of Nursing webpage to learn more about how to invest in the new building or make a gift online today. 

There will! Please reach out to Associate Dean for Advancement Kelly Kirby at kelly_kirby@unc.edu or Senior Director for Development Kate Gray at kategray@email.unc.edu to learn more.  

We will post the latest updates on the building campaign news and updates page of our website. Please reach out to a member of our advancement team with any questions!