The School of Public Health has seen significant growth in the past decade. Since 2001, the School has added 274 faculty and staff and increased enrollment by 236 students.

In 2003 the School developed a master plan that outlined two possibilities that would meet its growing needs.

One was for the School of Public Health to build an entirely new campus in Allston while maintaining its relatively new 105,000 square foot Francois-Xavier Bagnoud building on Huntington Ave. as a connection between Longwood and Allston. State-of-the-art facilities costing $560 million would replace worn down buildings built in the 1960s and 1970s and provide a permanent solution to the campus’ space limitations.

During this time, “we worked very hard to do planning for what it would mean for the school were it to have been moved,” says former Dean of the School of Public Health Barry R. Bloom, whose tenure ran from 1999 until 2009.

With a move at that time seemingly imminent, Bloom says that some of the faculty members were “delighted” and some were “disappointed.”

But due to financial constraints, in Dec. 2009 the University indefinitely halted construction on the Allston Science Complex, and along with it any plans for unifying and updating the School of Public Health.

Two years later, with talk of the University’s next steps into Allston back on the table, some officials say they hope the School will finally be given a unified space.

“I would hope that if current deans are engaged in planning, there would be a much more serious intent to create fruitful results,” says Bloom.

TO MOVE OR NOT TO MOVE?

Just as when Bloom was dean, those who work at the School of Public Health are divided on the possibility of moving to Allston.

Professor of Environmental Epidemiology Douglas W. Dockery says that relocating would create “stronger ties to the College and the rest of the University.”

“We haven’t been able to partner with the other school here as effectively as we should because of the distance,” he says.

Bloom—who will be co-teaching a College course, Life Sciences 120: “Global Health Threats,” this spring—says that moving the School near the College would be beneficial because he sees a “tremendous” interest in global health there.

“I think it would be a lot easier for [undergraduates] to have an outlet they can walk to in Allston instead of having to take the M2 shuttle,” he says, adding that a move would also enhance the College’s existing facilities.

“We have an extraordinary sense of community all over the place, even with faculty as far away as the Sears Center, but that could only be enhanced if we worked together on a daily basis,” Bloom says.