One of the biggest single projects in UC Irvine’s history will bring together its array of health sciences disciplines, uniting its existing school of medicine with the growing nursing school and fledgling programs expected to launch later as schools of pharmacy and population/public health.
The $185 million Samueli College of Health Sciences – including a new multi-building campus with a separate auditorium, Zen garden and a peacefully landscaped “wellness walk” connecting to the medical school – is expected to play a large role in getting UCI to its projected upper enrollment limit of 40,000 students.
Work is expected to start this month at the 9-acre site at Bison and California avenues, next to the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, and construction should take a little more than two years, said Jim Brittell, who is managing the project for UCI.
University officials say the new facilities will be unique in the way they integrate UCI’s health-related studies so faculty and students from different disciplines can do research and learn together to bring a “whole person” approach to patient care.
“The vision here is that we are creating a physical and programmatic structure that does not yet exist anywhere in the United States,” UCI Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Steve Goldstein said. “Instead of being siloed, the future of health care is bringing these disciplines together.”
A $200 million donation Henry and Susan Samueli made in 2017 is helping pay for the facilities, as well as 15 faculty chair positions, student scholarships and research projects. The nursing school building is funded in part by a $40 million gift Bill and Sue Gross made in 2016.
Students will take cross-disciplinary courses in “the best of many different worlds of medicine,” including traditional treatments such as acupuncture that are backed by research, said Shaista Malik, a cardiologist and executive director of the Susan Samueli Integrated Health Institute. The institute will have a home at the new health sciences college.
Even the facilities’ design will take wellness into account, with attention to lighting, indoor/outdoor spaces and other aspects that can reduce stress and promote healing, Malik said.
The idea of integration extends to the larger Orange County community and UCI Medical Center in Orange, which officials said will benefit from the research and team-based approach of the health sciences college.
Officials said the college will offer public seminars and classes in mindfulness and tai chi, and a nutrition-focused kitchen with an attached herb garden will be a place for students and residents to learn about food and health.
The university will use the new college’s integrated approach to collaborate with community groups as well. The nonprofit Project Hope Alliance, which works with Orange County’s homeless youth, will work with UCI doctors and researchers on a three-year pilot project to help students reduce their future risk of homelessness, said Jennifer Friend, the alliance’s CEO.
The students, who live with their families in cars, emergency shelters or out in the open, often experience stress, poor nutrition, anxiety and other signs of trauma, Friend said. That can lead to health problems and make it harder to complete high school, which increases their risk of homelessness when they become adults.
Partnering with UCI health programs and doctors, the Costa Mesa-based alliance will offer “clinic days” beginning this fall to about 25 students, who can get medical care and learn about nutrition and stress reduction techniques.
Friend said the pilot program will track students and see how they do, “not only making sure they graduate from high school, but making sure they do that as a healthy, whole person.” The college of health sciences will analyze the data collected by the program.
While the new health sciences college is a major project, it will have room to grow. Officials said the land includes space for a future building that could house the school of pharmacy or another health discipline.
Malik said the grand hope of UCI’s effort is to move away from today’s medical system that people mainly engage with when they feel ill or have symptoms, and toward a system that helps people enjoy not just a longer life, but a healthier one.
