The Elon community is invited to tour the new facility, home of the School of Health Sciences.
Elon formally dedicates the Gerald L. Francis Center in ceremonies at 11 a.m., Friday, Oct. 26. The Francis Center is the home of Elon’s School of Health Sciences, including the Doctor of Physical Therapy and Physician Assistant Studies programs. Following the ribbon-cutting, the campus community is invited to tour the building.
Honored at the dedication will be Gerald (Gerry) Francis, executive vice president and a member of the president’s staff. Prior to assuming the executive vice president position in June 2009, Francis served for 15 years as Elon’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. He came to Elon in 1974 as an assistant professor in the department of mathematics. In 1981, he received the Daniels-Danieley Award for Excellence in Teaching. Francis has dedicated his academic career to Elon.
The Francis Center features three classrooms dedicated to the DPT program and two classrooms for the physician assistant program, with three clinical laboratories, five simulation/exam rooms and two observation rooms, an anatomy lab, a biomechanics lab, a human performance lab, an ultrasound lab, a neuroscience lab, an anthropometry lab, an electrophysiology lab, a metabolic lab and an osteology lab.
New teaching and research equipment includes a second Biodex system for campus, a Qualisys gait analysis and rehabilitation system, which includes 12 cameras and a 16-channel wireless EMG system, plus two force plates; and a Robomedica system.
The first floor of the building also includes a large commons area, student lounge and fitness facility.
Future plans for the undeveloped part of the building include the 13,000-square-foot Scott Studios, providing expanded practice and performance spaces for the acting, dance, music theatre, theatre studies and theatrical design and production programs.
Future plans also include a large student activity facility.
The Francis Center formerly served as a Smithfield Foods processing facility, which was purchased by the university in 2011 and fully renovated. The property adjacent to the building includes new student recreation fields, with a road connected to the Danieley Center residential neighborhood.