The University of Iowa cut the ribbon Wednesday on the new Health Sciences Academic Building located just south of Slater (SLAY-ter) Residence Hall that will house three separate but related top-ranked programs. Eric Hunter, chair of the U-I’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, says it’s a stunning six-story addition to the Iowa City campus.
Professor Hunter says the new structure puts the three programs under one roof — Communications Sciences and Disorders, Health and Human Physiology, and Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences. He says Communications Sciences and Disorders encompasses things like children with autism, people who use hearing aids, and post-stroke patients who are learning to speak and swallow again.
Many hundreds of students, researchers and educators are already using the building, which is also welcoming scores of visitors and patients.
A wide range of students will be attending classes in the new facility, including pre-med, kinesiology, anatomy, sports management and many other disciplines. Hunter says he expects plenty of synergy between the three departments, working toward ways to perhaps join graduate programs and cross over their inter-professional practices.
Ground was broken for the quarter-BILLION-dollar building in October of 2023.
