Public-health students at the University of Arizona started spring semester classes in the not-quite-complete Roy P. Drachman Hall, the first home for the 6-year-old college that has been scattered among 22 on- and off-campus locations.
The $30 million facility in the Arizona Health Sciences Center complex, north of East Speedway, is still under construction. But first-floor classrooms are complete, and after a short ribbon-cutting ceremony, professor Joel Meister led the first class for the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health into its permanent home.
"It's very exciting. It's been a long time getting here, and now it's real," Meister said before starting class for his eight students in ethics, values and public policy in Room CPH 516.
A formal dedication of Drachman Hall is set for April. The building, with two wings connected by second- and third-story walkways, will house the Public Health College, including classrooms and offices, and provide space for the Colleges of Nursing and Pharmacy.
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"When you have to beg, borrow and steal places just to have your own meeting, this place just makes the college more of an entity," said G. Marie Swanson, dean of the college.
Students were excited about taking classes in the new building, saying that having a home validates the college.
"It reinforces your identity as a college to have your own building," said Bryna Koch, a first-year master's student.
"This is our building, as opposed to getting lost in the (University) Medical Center," said Selena Ortiz, another first-year student. "Aesthetically, when it's a beautiful environment, it respects the mission."
About 37,000 UA students returned to or started classes Wednesday as the university picked up its spring semester.
Also on the first day of classes, UA President Peter Likins was back at work full time after emergency pacemaker surgery on Dec. 31. Likins was admitted to University Medical Center two days earlier with acute abdominal pain, and doctors installed the pacemaker after removing a kidney stone on Dec. 30. Likins is expected to fully recover.
