Salina Journal News: Grand opening, ribbon cutting set for Brown Mackie facility

Grand opening, ribbon cutting set for Brown Mackie facility

8/13/2010
MICHAEL STRAND

In the wink of an eye, an ordinary classroom can go from housing a math class to a management class to an English class.
But when you have surgical gear, a horse skeleton and fingerprinting equipment, you need some special rooms.
Brown Mackie College — Salina has completed construction on a 9,600-square-foot building at 2525 S. Ohio to house its new veterinary technician and occupational therapy assistant programs, as well as its criminal justice program.
A grand opening is set for 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Brown Mackie president Judy Holmes said the new facility will house the labs for the three programs, while students will continue to take their general education classes at the main building at 2106 S. Ninth.
Each of the three programs has specialized equipment, Holmes said, requiring a dedicated setting.
“The veterinary side is one whole wing, about half the total space,” Holmes said, and includes animal mannequins, surgical equipment, radiology equipment and skeletons of various animals.
The veterinary technician and occupational therapy assistant programs are two-year programs and started in late 2009, Holmes said.
“Criminal justice has been around for awhile, and now we have a lab specific to criminal justice, with big computer screens, equipment for research, fingerprinting and so on,” Holmes said.
“Both are doing very well,” Holmes said. “We don’t have stats from prior years, but they’re doing better than we expected. They’re two of our three most popular programs, with nursing at No. 1.”