Located on Monticello Avenue , the Sentara Williamsburg Community Hospital building will be an exciting new home for the School of Education .

uring his first day as William and Mary's new president, Gene R. Nichol toured the School of Education, witnessing firsthand the School's cramped quarters. Recognizing the School of Education's critical space constraints, Nichol is particularly excited about the College's agreement to acquire the Sentara Williamsburg Community Hospital for the School's future home - an agreement that resulted in a $7.4 million gift-in-kind to William and Mary from Sentara.

"Acquiring this site is a tremendous boon for the College and the Commonwealth - and a tribute to the close collaboration with the community that made it possible," he says. "Sentara's generosity will give our faculty and students the room they need to fulfill their considerable potential in preparing outstanding educators."

After a yearlong study and a public hearing, Sentara and the College agreed upon an $8.7 million purchase price - far below the estimated $16.1 million market value of the property - resulting in the gift-in-kind.

"From the start, Sentara was committed to working with the community to find an appropriate re-use for the site," says David Bernd ’71, president and CEO of Sentara Healthcare. "We were delighted with the broad community participation that led to this agreement, and believe that William and Mary will make excellent use of the space."

Acquiring the new facility is "a transformational opportunity," says Virginia L. McLaughlin ’71, dean of the School of Education. "Our faculty and students have been extraordinarily successful, despite our space constraints. It's exciting to think about how much more we will accomplish when we have a facility worthy of their talents."

Sitting on 22 acres northwest of campus, the 217,000-square-foot building will allow the School of Education to house all of its academic, research and outreach programs under one roof. The site's ample parking and proximity to major thoroughfares will better serve the School's student body of predominantly part-time, graduate-level students, as well as the many teachers, administrators, K-12 students and parents who participate in the School's programs.

The College has already started planning for the renovation, which will begin once Sentara moves to the state-of-the-art Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center in the summer of 2006. In addition to support from the Commonwealth, the School of Education must raise private funds to outfit the building with lecture halls, seminar and meeting rooms, resource centers, and technologies, as well as create homes for the School's various research and outreach centers.

For more information about the School of Education's new facility, please contact Andrew Barry, director of development for the School of Education, at 757-221-3712 or acbarr@wm.edu.