Samuel Merritt University's $240M campus will bring 2,000 students to downtown Oakland

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- For the past 117 years, Samuel Merritt University has been one of California's largest educators of registered nurses. In a big win for the city, it will now be centered in downtown Oakland.

The 10-story, 260,000-square-foot facility is expected to bring approximately 2,000 students and 500 faculty and staff to the city's urban core daily.

City leaders and university officials believe the new campus will be a vital "anchor institution" to revitalize downtown Oakland, a neighborhood hit hard by high commercial vacancy rates and less foot traffic since the pandemic.

The new flagship campus comes at a cost of $240 million, offering undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and nursing certificate programs.

William Hathorn, a current student at the school, says the school's reputation and its connections to other institutions, including strong links to numerous hospitals such as Stanford, Kaiser, Sutte are why he chose this university.

SMU aims to double enrollment over the next decade. Oakland city leaders say this will be a big boost to downtown businesses as city as it positions itself as a workforce development hub.

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"It's using Oakland's public assets to catalyze public and private investment and to deliver public health. How good could that be! Public health, public benefits for our city," says Mayor Lee.

East Bay Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, who was also in attendance for the grand opening, presented a million-dollar check to the university. She says she fought hard to get federal funding for the school.

"If you are from the Bay Area, you know Samuel Merritt breeds healers -- that healers are being taught in this building. And with their hands and with their hearts, all of us will be better," says Representative Simon.

SMU president, Dr. Ching-Hua Wang, says the U.S. health care is under strain, highlighted by this week's Kaiser strike. The Association of American Medical Colleges says the United States is facing a nurse shortage and estimates California will have a 17% shortage of registered nurses by 2033.

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"This campus is our direct response to the call, but taking concrete, or maybe glass and steel actions (referencing the news glass building), where the challenges are real, the stakes are high, and the impact is immediate," says Dr. Wang.