Berryhill Hall could be replaced with a $90.6 million building

If the Connect NC bond passes in the primary vote on March 15, UNC will receive $68 million to build a new building for the School of Medicine.

The $2 billion bond includes money for universities across the state to accomplish campus priorities related to STEM. The medical school building would be funded through the bond and another $22.6 million in University funds.

Karen McCall, a spokesperson for the UNC School of Medicine and UNC Health Care, said a new medical education building is necessary in part because of growing demand for physicians. She said the current building, Berryhill Hall, isn’t accomodating the modern style of teaching medicine.

“Berryhill Hall has lots of lecture halls because in the 1960s and ’70s, that’s how people were trained,” McCall said. “But they’re not trained by lecture anymore. They’re trained in small group teams, and they have lots more hands on experience, so that’s the type of feature the new building will have.”

Julie Byerley, the vice dean for education for the School of Medicine, said Berryhill Hall has little flexible space and does not support the desired technology for education. Byerley said the hall has an unusable lecture hall that does not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“Right now, we actually have chalkboards, not even whiteboards,” Byerley said.

Byerley said a bigger facility would provide many opportunities for UNC’s School of Medicine, such as admitting more students.

“Currently we have 180 medical students per class, and we have Board of Governors approval for 230, but we couldn’t increase our class until we had a bigger facility for educating the medical students,” Byerley said.

Jennifer Willis, the interim director of public affairs for UNC, said choosing a new medical education building was almost a no-brainer because the current building is outdated.

“Our goal is to educate more doctors and ultimately save more North Carolina lives, so the bond will have an impact beyond the actual construction that happens on Chapel Hill’s campus,” Willis said.

McCall said UNC expanded its medical school by opening campuses in Charlotte and Asheville. This month, a Wilmington campus is opening.

“We need more room to train physicians during their first two years of their medical education, and right now, our current facilities in Berryhill are not sufficient, and they lack the type of space that the modern curriculum requires,” McCall said.

Byerley said options for the new medical education building include opening a completely new structure or adding onto Berryhill Hall and renovating the old structure.

Although official decisions about the new building haven’t been made, Byerley hopes for a facility with more open and flexible spaces that support small group work, inter-professional education and simulation education.

“We expect that this will benefit the entire University community because of inter-professional education, and this definitely is a medical school building, but we anticipate other learners participating in some of the teaching that occurs there as well, and we certainly appreciate University-wide support,” Byerley said.

Willis said the administration doesn’t foresee any financial drawbacks to the bond at this point, and a tax increase is not required if the bond passes.

Byerley said no official decisions have been made about the details of the new building, and decisions will be made if the bond passes.

“My hope is that we’ll have a new structure that will allow us more space,” she said.

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