When Dr. Tim Faltyn took over as the head of Murray State College in early 2022, the school’s Ardmore campus was a satellite of the main campus in Tishomingo. On Thursday, the Ardmore footprint came one step closer to becoming its own with the announcement of the college reaching an $18 million fundraising goal to construct a new nurse education facility.

“You are only able to sustain the things that people view as valuable offered by your institution,” Faltyn said on Thursday. “One of the things we realized was that nursing isn’t just something that would be good for Murray State. Really focusing on nursing was something that everybody needed.”

Because of that realization, more than half of the $18 million fundraising goal came from local community members. With a majority of the $25.5 million secured, Faltyn said that the school will only have to finance about $7 million for the project.

Among major donors included Mercy Hospital, The Jerome Westheimer Family Foundation, The Chickasaw Nation, and The Keith R. and Robin A. Gray Foundation. The Southern Oklahoma Nursing Education Center, or SONEC, is expected to create nearly 40 jobs on the campus and give room to a college that has seen regular enrollment increases for several years.

Once completed, the new education center will train new nurses and help them attain certifications, get students on the track to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing, and train future nurses to work on Air Evac.

“We’re going to build about 44,000 square feet of educational space and revolutionize nursing in southern Oklahoma,” said Faltyn.

While the SONEC facility will become a hub for nursing edcucation, Faltyn said that the Ardmore campus will not draw students or staff from the other campus in Tishomingo nor from the nursing centers in Duncan and Durant.

“What SONEC really does is give our graduates access to that next level of nursing education, and it gives them a brand new facility,” said Faltyn. “We’re still going to have a program in Duncan, still going to have one in Tishomingo, still one in Durant. So none of that changes, except for now they’ll have to ability to go to the University of Oklahoma for the advanced practice stuff.”

A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for April 8 at 2 p.m.