On Sept. 9, leaders from Rowan University and Virtua Health, state and local officials, students and community members came together to mark the ceremonial halfway point in the construction of the future home of the New Jersey’s first veterinary school — the Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine — and the Virtua Health College Research Center.
What was once a peach orchard is becoming a $176 million hub for health education and innovation on Rowan University’s West Campus. The 162,000-square-foot facility sits on a 300-acre tract, a mile east of Rowan’s Main Campus in Glassboro.
The largest academic facility on the university’s eight campuses, the building will include space for the veterinary school’s classrooms, a teaching hospital with clinical services to serve the community and research and diagnostic labs.
To expand Rowan’s rapidly growing research activity — the university is quickly approaching Research 1 Carnegie Classification — the Virtua Health College Research Center will include open, modular laboratories, collaboration space and support facilities in the building’s four-story tower.
Established in 2021, Virtua Health College of Medicine & Life Sciences is a historic academic partnership between Rowan and Virtua Health, South Jersey’s largest health system. The partnership includes Rowan’s Translational Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, the Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine and the Rowan-Virtua Rita & Larry Salva School of Nursing & Health Professions.
In addressing the standing-room-only crowd gathered in the area of the construction site that will become the atrium of the building, Rowan President Ali Houshmand emphasized that such a massive project wouldn’t happen without strong partners committed to advancing the education and economy of the South Jersey region.
“One word to describe this is partnerships,” Houshmand said as he thanked the university’s partners, including Virtua Health, led by CEO and President Dennis Pullin; U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross (D-1st Dist.); Assemblyman Louis Greenwald (D-Voorhees); state Sen. Troy Singleton (D-Moorestown); state Sen. John Burzichelli (D-Glassboro); Rowan board of trustees members, led by Chairman Chad Bruner; former state Senate President Steve Sweeney; and South Jersey businessman and entrepreneur Gerry Shreiber, whose $30 million gift to the institution is supporting scholarships to veterinary students.
Shreiber, who was the first to sign the beam along with his wife, Melanie, “is an entrepreneur who used his phenomenal business success as a springboard to help others, particularly Rowan students,” Houshmand said. “We are grateful for the support of the Shreiber family and for their confidence in what we can accomplish together.”
In November 2021, the New Jersey Legislature approved $75 million to construct the veterinary school’s primary academic and clinical facility. In 2022, Virtua Health made a philanthropic investment of $85 million and Rowan committed $125 million to create the academic health partnership to advance medical, nursing and health care professions education, research and care.
Norcross noted that the Higher Education Restructuring Act, passed in 2013, established Rowan as the state’s third public research institution. Before its passage, South Jersey higher education was “historically underfunded,” Norcross said.
“Working together is how we got to the vision we see here today,” Norcross said.
The facility was designed by Erdy McHenry Architecture. LF Driscoll is the construction manager. The Gloucester County Improvement Authority is the project developer.
When the veterinary school opens, Rowan will become only the second institution in the nation with three medical schools offering DVM, M.D. and D.O. degrees.
Bruner noted that Rowan’s future West Campus expansion will include an advanced manufacturing hub; the new home of the Rowan-Virtua Rita & Larry Salva School of Nursing & Health Professions; and a holistic wellness village.
