College of Global Public Health Finds a Home
February 2, 2016
Starting in the fall of 2017, NYU’s College of Global Public Health will have its own building at 404 Lafayette St. The newly minted school at NYU — which was founded in 2015 — aims to improve health at an international level.
Dean of CGPH Cheryl Healton said that, because of its novelty, the college is presently spread out in three different locations throughout Manhattan to accommodate the 140 faculty and 600 students affiliated with it.
“The space will be used for faculty and staff offices, seminar rooms, research projects, [and] student activity,” Healton said.
The school was set to move into 60 Fifth Ave. during the summer of 2016. However, once it was determined that the CGPH would be better suited for 404 Lafayette, the date of relocation was postponed in order to renovate the new site.
“Finding new space for the CGPH was a team effort,” Healton said. “We had previously been assigned to 60 Fifth Ave., but our projected space needs exceeded the amount of space we could have there. Public Health is research intensive, which adds to the need for space.”
Julie Avina, the associate dean of student and alumni affairs at the CGPH, believes it is worth the wait.
“Having a central location our students can call home will go a long way to expanding our sense of community,” Avina said.
The CGPH will share this new building with the NYU Health Club, and the College will occupy floors three to eight, while the club will occupy the basement to the second floor.
CGPH junior Maggie Ruzich said she thinks this relocation is vital for the young college, and she believes it will help bring more attention to the college.
“The floor plan and space at the moment is definitely a little convoluted, as I believe the space used to be a gallery of some type,” Ruzich said. “I mean, selfishly, I would have loved more time in a building that was dedicated almost exclusively to CGPH, as it is my major.”
Ruzich is looking forward to seeing what the expansion plans will allow the school to accomplish. According to an e-mail sent by Healton on Jan. 14, the new building will boast 70,000 square feet, compared to the college’s present 10,000 square-footage allotment .
“Our goal is to be among the nation’s Top Ten Schools of Public Health within the next decade,” Healton said. “This is an ambitious but achievable goal. We cannot achieve it without recruiting great faculty and students and giving them both the tools — and space — to succeed.”
Email Diamond Naga Siu at [email protected].