‘Nomads’ no longer, College of Pharmacy moves into new space thanks to more than a thousand donors

In 1952, the MUSC College of Pharmacy took up the fourth floor of a new cancer clinic on Calhoun Street in downtown Charleston. By the 1970s, the college had taken over the entire building and leadership started pushing for a new building.

They were still talking about the need for a new building when Anthony DeClue started pharmacy school at MUSC in 2012. He, like so many others wondered, “When will it finally happen?”

“Thank you for your investment in our profession and our students.”

To make up for a lack of physical space, DeClue explained, pharmacy students would be spread out across four buildings on MUSC’s campus: Drug Discovery, Bioengineering, Basic Science and the college. Each came with its own set of challenges.

“As a first-year student I was in the Basic Science building,” DeClue said. “It had seats that were attached to the desk and stadium-style seating with a very sharp slope. Gravity would push you into the desk, squeaking if you shifted or moved.”

“Bioengineering had the nicest of the rooms,” he continued. “Unfortunately, we were regularly kicked out of those rooms because the university needed it for other colleges or activities. So, we're a bit of nomads.”

“On the third floor of the College of Pharmacy we had two classrooms affectionally called the red room and the blue room because of their color schemes,” DeClue said. “They had the old elementary school-style desks where the seat and desk are attached.”

Not much has changed, according to Class of 2023 students Luke Nesbitt and Skylar Haas. Both had classes in the college’s third floor classrooms.

“They had the flip desk where you only had a super small portion of desk space,” Haas explained. “Definitely not enough room to have your laptop and your iPad to take notes.”

“It was challenging on test days because everyone's on top of each other,” Nesbitt added. “And there weren’t enough outlets, so often you'd be fighting for the ability to charge your laptop.”

The lack of space also made it challenging to find somewhere to study or meet with an advisor.

“Our offices were not as well thought out or furnished as they are now in the new building,” said DeClue, who returned to the college as a faculty member in 2017. “If you were meeting with more than one or two people that could be difficult to arrange. It wasn't uncommon for me to go outside to find somewhere to talk privately.”

And then there were the sounds of the old building. On a video call, a colleague once told DeClue it sounded like “a plane taking off” when the air conditioning kicked on. And because of the age of the building, “banging” and “clanging” repairs were a frequent soundtrack.

The new building is in the heart of MUSC’s campus, with 24,000 square feet of space. The college’s new home on the Horseshoe brings it closer to its practice pharmacy and the Drug Discovery Building, where pharmacy research takes place.

DeClue says the new location will transform the pharmacy experience for future students. “Right out of our entrance you can see the main entrance to the hospital. I think it's very healthy for our students to be physically positioned in the center of campus, interacting, and crossing paths with a variety of practitioners in different settings versus being sequestered on the perimeter of campus.”

 

Haas says the updated building and its location sends a message to potential students that MUSC cares about pharmacy. “They're pouring into our cups,” she said. “They care about us. If I were touring, it would be a huge plus to me to see all of this. I've said multiple times, I would start over just so I could learn in here.”

And because they’re not spread across campus, students and faculty members have more opportunities to engage with each other as well.

“You walk in, and you see people before class, after class, at lunch – everyone's together,” Nesbitt said. “It gives us a sense of camaraderie that we've been missing for years.”

“This new building is clearly a state-of-the-art space where people can get a modern education,” DeClue said. Still, he admits the brick entrance to Calhoun Street building had its charm. “I have a lovely painting of it in my office that I'll cherish forever as my initial pharmacy home.”

More than a thousand donors, including hundreds of pharmacy alumni, made the new building a reality. Some committed to giving for years.

“Thank you for your investment in our profession and our students. I hope I can pay it forward in a way that respects their donation. I have given my own little bit. I might claim a doorknob somewhere,” DeClue joked. “But nothing like others who have given perpetually without the opportunity to benefit themselves.”

Haas and Nesbitt plan to soak up every moment they have in the building. “The incoming students aren't even going to know how lucky they are,” Haas said.

Meanwhile DeClue plans to enjoy the new building for years to come.

“I would be very happy if this is the space I'm in when I retire many, many, many decades from now,” he said.