Classroom, office space to be added at PNWU

YAKIMA, Wash. -- A new building to house classrooms, study areas and student government offices at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Tentatively dubbed the Student Polyuse Building, the planned 10,000-square-foot structure will be east of the existing facility. The construction budget is about $1.5 million.

Gretchen Eickmeyer, vice president for university advancement, said the extra space is needed at least in part to meet accreditation standards that call for 60,000 square feet of academic and related space.

The existing building, including Butler-Haney Hall, is about 47,000 square feet, and the university also leases space in the nearby Iron Horse Lodge.

The College of Osteopathic Medicine has provisional accreditation and is working toward full accreditation by the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation. That won't be offered until the first class of medical students, now in its second year, graduates in 2013.

The new building will be built by Yakima University Holdings, a private company that will lease it back to the university "at very favorable terms," according to a news release from the university.

Eickmeyer said the donors want to remain anonymous but added, "They are passionate about the school."

The new building will be fully funded through private donations.

Separately, the university has named new board members and officers. They are businesswoman Pat Temple, James Haven, M.D. Chris Clark, D.O. and Paul Schaake of the Schaake Corp of Yakima.

They replace Palmer Wright, D.O., Jean Pryor, Bush Preacher, M.D. and Bill Almon.

Secretary of the board is Duane Rossman, retired general manager of Weyerhaeuser Co. The assistant secretary/treasurer is Mike Maples, M.D., and Clark is second assistant secretary/treasurer.

* Leah Beth Ward can be reached at 509-577-7626 or lward@yakimaherald.com