1.6.f. - 1.6.i.

Numbers from August 2006

1.6.g. Space available by purpose, program and location

The School’s administration is centralized in the Mayo Memorial Building on the University’s Minneapolis East Bank Campus. Its Divisions and programs are, however, dispersed across 10 locations on- and off-campus in University-owned and rental property that totals 207,000 square feet. Although most of the School’s space is within walking distance, a shuttle service is maintained by the School to transport faculty, students and staff between the Mayo Building and one of its other locations on the edge of University’s Minneapolis West Bank Campus, approximately one mile away.

The table below details the space arrangements for the School. Included are 13,243 square feet of space for students, of which 7,400 square feet are devoted to a new student commons with a computer lab and other up-to-date amenities. This also includes four classrooms used almost exclusively by the School as student study spaces and for computing resources. In addition, the School has access to all of the 4,400 square feet of classroom space available within the Academic Health Center, and students make frequent use of the 1,226 square feet of space in the CHIP student lounge area.

1.6.h. Laboratory space (kind, quality and special features or special equipment)

A total 8,010 square feet are dedicated to teaching and research laboratories, as well as adjacent lab support areas. Laboratory space is included in the inventory for the Divisions of Environmental Health Sciences and Epidemiology and Community Health.

Toxicology and environmental chemistry laboratories are located in the Mayo Building within the Division of Environmental Health Sciences. Industrial hygiene, radiation, and environmental microbiology laboratories, also maintained by that Division, are located in the Boynton Health Service Building, adjacent to faculty offices.

Two clinical research service labs are located in the Division of Epidemiology at the MESA study site in West St. Paul and at the Epidemiology Clinical Research Center in Minneapolis.

A multi-level partnership with the Minnesota Department of Health, Minnesota Department of Agriculture and the Academic Health Center has been formed to provide BSL-3 (enhanced) laboratory space for researchers, including SPH faculty. Please see Chapter 1.6.k. for more information.

Environmental Health Sciences Labs

The Environmental Health Sciences Environmental Chemistry Lab, with more than 600 square feet of space, is located on the 11th floor of the Mayo Building and is equipped with extraction and processing equipment for trace analysis of environmental samples. The space includes three GC/MS, one LC/MS, a GC/ECD and a scintillation counter.

The Environmental Health Sciences Industrial Hygiene Lab occupies 1,500 square feet of space in the Boynton Health Services Building. It is equipped with instrumentation for measurement of gases, vapors and particulate matter. The laboratory has 10 Dust-Trak nephelometers, 15 gravimetric PM2.5 indoor and personal samplers, Condensation Particle Counters, portable-sized distribution measuring devices, microbalances and a gas chromatograph with a flame ionization detector. Major test apparatuses include a filter tester, a wind tunnel, a calm air chamber, three laboratory hoods and two biosafety cabinets. It also has equipment for calibration of the sampling instrumentation (such as the Gilian calibrators) and a wide range of pumps for use with the various sampling devices.

The Environmental Health Sciences Toxicology Lab has 1,200 square feet and is located on the 11th floor of the Mayo Building. It is equipped with: tissue culture facilities; high speed centrifuge; rotors; microfuges; speed vac; environmental shaker; visible and UV spectrophotometer; fluorimeter; luminometer polymerase chain reaction (PCR); liquid scintillation counter; dark room; electrophoresis and electroblotting equipment for protein and nucleic acid purification; Bio-Rad Econo System; and a chromatography cabinet for doing work at four degrees Centigrade.

Epidemiology and Community Health Labs

The Epidemiology Clinical Research Center (ECRC) site has 406 square feet of lab space designated for clinical research studies. The lab functions primarily as a phlebotomy site and processing lab where study participants’ blood and urine are collected and prepared for shipping to outside laboratories, including accredited clinical diagnostic labs, contracted clinical trial labs or research labs. The Lab has the following equipment: refrigerated centrifuges; refrigerators; ultra low freezers; and pre-packaged test kits.

The MESA Study Lab in West St. Paul has 600 square feet of space and essentially the same equipment and operations as the ECRC.

1.6.i. Computer facilities and resources for students, faculty, administration and staff.

An extensive array of state-of-the-art facilities and equipment is available through the University and School. The University’s Office of Information Technology (http://www.umn.edu/oit) manages the centrally provided computer, network, phone and other information technology systems. It also provides a comprehensive range of services to students, faculty, staff and departments through its service units:

• Academic & Distributed Computing Services (ADCS) (http://www.umn.edu/adcs/) provides leadership for the use of information technology in academic areas (teaching and learning, research and discovery and some aspects of outreach and service) and supports students, faculty and staff in anticipating information technology needs and responding to them with appropriate infrastructure, applications and services. Services include technology training short courses, technology helplines and the rent-a-guru program.
• The Faculty Technology Resource Center, or Digital Media Center (DMC) (http://dmc.umn.edu) promotes the innovative use of learning technologies and supports faculty developing multimedia (including Internet) learning projects.

The School provides students, faculty and staff with extensive computer facilities and support staff. Because the School is geographically dispersed, the Office of the Dean and each Division separately maintain computing systems which are regularly upgraded. Students are provided with computing access through a main student computer room and student computing labs in each Division and support within resource constraints. The School and AHC provide several fully wired classrooms of instructional computing resources. Students have full wired and wireless access to computing resources and software through the University.