City Colleges brings back South Side nursing school

CHICAGO - City Colleges of Chicago plans to open a nursing school program on the South Side, bringing health care training back to an area that lost it years ago.

The community college system on Tuesday announced it will construct a new clinical training facility — called Malcolm X College Learning Center — in Washington Park. It’s a joint effort with the University of Chicago, which plans to open an adjacent clinical lab.

The two buildings are expected to break ground in 2025 and open in the 2026-2027 school year. They will be constructed on Garfield Boulevard between the Green Line tracks and Calumet Avenue.

Mayor Brandon Johnson said the project will provide access to healthcare education that "extends beyond the neighborhoods that are most connected."

The project will also provide training for much-needed healthcare jobs that pay well. Registered nurses in Cook County earn annual median salaries of $83,000.

"This investment here on the South Side of Chicago will have reverberating impacts throughout the entire city," Johnson said.

The University of Chicago clinical lab will consolidate existing labs at their medical campus and shift 350 jobs — plus an additional 200 — to the Washington Park neighborhood. The first floor of the facility will be rentable retail space, which officials said will help support restaurants and businesses, as well as the transit hub.

"I really believe it will help us bring more opportunity to the area," University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos said at the announcement.

The City Colleges learning center will establish its first clinical lab technician program in Chicago. When fully operating, the Learning Center could serve up to 800 students a year.

At the moment, nursing students must complete clinical rotations outside of the school system, mostly at hospitals, since the school does not have its own program, a school spokeswoman said. The learning center will include classrooms, dry labs, office space and ground-floor retail space.

City Colleges will also soon offer a full nursing pathway at Kennedy-King College in Englewood. The program will include an associate’s degree in nursing, a licensed practical nursing program and a basic nursing assistant program. The school expects to graduate 50 basic nursing assistant students per year by fall 2024, 50 associate degree earners in nursing and 10 licensed practical nurse degree earners in 2027, and 100 degree-seeking students per year by 2028.

City Colleges began consolidating its nursing programs in 2014, eventually closing programs at all of its campuses except for Malcolm X College on the Near West Side.

Ald. Janette Taylor (20th), who represents parts of the South Side, said that decision "really hurt us."

The consolidation led to a drop in nursing enrollment from about 1,500 to 330 students in 2018, Tony Johnston, the president of the Cook County College Teachers Union, said at the time.

"Young people just didn’t really want to travel" to the one remaining campus that offered nursing training, Taylor said Tuesday. "So I’m excited that we listened to folks on this side of the community… I’m excited that they’re bringing this back."

City Colleges will invest about $40 million into the Malcolm X College Learning Center, a spokeswoman said. City Colleges Chancellor Juan Salgado said the school would be seeking state resources but did not elaborate.

UChicago Medicine said its lab is still in the design stages and may cost at least $200 million, according to the university’s current estimates. The school said it will not seek public funding.

The UChicago Medicine Clinical Labs will be built on land owned by the University of Chicago. The Malcolm X Learning Center will be built on land owned by the CTA.