The Belanger Campus

The Ellis Hospital School of Nursing has a new home!  The fall 2004 semester began at The Belanger Campus,  which is located at 1482 Erie Boulevard in Schenectady.

“It is a welcome change to have a new modern facility that is large enough to meet the demands of our increasing enrollment and to help us recruit the best and brightest in the area,”  Ellis Hospital School of Nursing Director Mary Lee Pollard,  R.N.,  M.S.,  Ph.D. said.

The Belanger Campus,  which is named in honor of Ellis benefactor John W. Belanger,  houses the School of Nursing,  as well as Ellis Hospital’s Patient Financial Services department.  The new School of Nursing has a total of four classrooms,  a skills laboratory,  a computer laboratory,  two conference rooms,  a faculty library,  and a student lounge.  Another notable improvement at the new campus is private offices for faculty members.  At the School’s former location,  at the corner of Nott Street and Maxon Road in Schenectady,  faculty members shared one large office and were separated by cubicles.  The ability to hold private student-faculty meetings in the new facility has greatly enhance the school’s student advisement program to make each student’s educational experience as meaningful as possible,  according to Pollard.

“The whole idea of the Belanger Campus is wonderful,”  Ellis Hospital Foundation Trustee Norma Cummings Rettek said about the facility honoring her late uncle,  John W. Belanger.  “Nursing is a very noble profession and with the current need for nurses,  the timing was perfect to move into this larger,  upscale facility.”

In addition to the physical changes at the Ellis Hospital School of Nursing,  the school’s curriculum has expanded in the fall of 2004 with the addition of a new evening/weekend program that will allow students to earn their nursing degrees over a two-year period with classes and clinical experiences offered on weekends.