Jorge Cardona | Staff Writer
On May 27, FIU broke ground on a new student medical center on MMC campus as part of a cooperation agreement with Baptist Health in a ceremony attended by FIU President Jeanette Nunez and Baptist Health CEO Bo Boulenger.
This new medical center, named the Helen and Jacob Shaham Academic Medical Center, will stand on the same grounds where the former University Apartments complex stood before being demolished at the beginning of this year, which resulted in the displacement of over 500 students.
The Baptist Health center will be the sixth academic health center on FIU’s MMC campus along with the health centers belonging to the College of Medicine and the College of Nursing as well as the Ambulatory Care Center on Tamiami Trail.
The demolition of the University Apartments complex to make way for the construction of the new Baptist Health medical center raises questions about on campus student housing at FIU, which was one of the main issues discussed during the recent SGA elections.
Former SGA Housing Senator Trey Saunders weighed in on the impact of the new medical center on the student housing situation on campus, stating: “…It’s temporarily going to make it harder for students to be able to live on campus until 2029… juniors and seniors are not able to live on campus so it’s just making it harder for freshmen and sophomores to live on campus.”
As pointed out by the former senator, on-campus housing will now be reserved mainly for underclassmen, leaving juniors and seniors without housing starting this fall semester. This reflects the housing shortage at FIU, with an on-campus housing capacity of only 4,400 students representing about 8% of the university’s student population, according to UNIVSTATS.
Saunders further added that his initial position regarding the medical center was to question the immediate need for it, saying that “it could have waited” and that FIU administration should have done more to prioritize student housing.
When asked if SGA had been consulted during the negotiation process between FIU and Baptist Health, Saunders described a lack of transparency on the part of university administration, stating that “…we [SGA Senate] were told like one day before they’re going to do this [start construction on medical center], when the contract was already signed.”
FIU also announced the construction of a new university-affiliated off-campus apartment building near MMC campus with an 820-bed capacity. This new apartment building will not be open to residents until Fall 2028, leaving the housing issue unresolved for the next two years.
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