Nursing students at Murray State University will soon take classes in a modern new building.

A few hundred people gathered to cut the ribbon on Jackson Hall Thursday.

Our Laura Rogers has more now from Callaway County.

This new building is going to give us so many new opportunities.

That new building is Jackson Hall, named after alumni and former Murray State University president doctor Bob Jackson and his wife, Karen Miller Jackson.

We're extremely grateful we were students here.

We came here, we met here.

And so this has been our home for 45 years.

His wife, Karen, earned her bachelor's degree in nursing from Murray State.

The 18 year old collegiate nursing student from Lyon County, still inside me, can hardly believe this moment.

Bob Jackson is also a former state senator and says he's grateful to the General Assembly for appropriating $45.5 million for the building's construction.

We have a record enrollment in nursing this particular year.

We did last year as well.

And so that's what new equipment, new facilities, new buildings do for universities.

We're excited for the new space.

Doctor Dena Byers is dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and says there is a persisting health care worker shortage.

We continue to see that.

And no matter if it's nursing registered dietitian, we have folks reaching out to us about radiography.

There is a need this university locks in.

And focuses on educating our students to be able to get jobs in our community, and to be able to stay home.

A lot of them go other places, but they're educated to be able to stay in our community and meet the needs of our community in our area.

Murray State hopes to continue that work, especially in rural areas where students like Josie hail from nearby Mayfield hope to one day practice.

It's very hard to pass up such a good program that is so close to home.

It's kind of a 2 in 1, just a very great place to be, but also kind of fit the best of both worlds.

She's working toward her Bachelor of Science in nursing, following in the footsteps of many in her family.

Being a nurse, just being able to help people and then seeing that in my family, how they can help people and how they're able to help the community in those ways.

That's just something that I've always kind of wanted to do.

The construction of Jackson Hall will complement Mason Hall, built in the 1960s.

We've just run out of space.

It will be renovated for a new dental hygiene program.

We are.

Here in western Kentucky in a dental desert, so I'm excited about that.

That will be my next project.

In the meantime, students and faculty will get settled in Jackson Hall, learning amid new tools and resources.

We're going to be getting new exam rooms, new a new simulation room, a new occupational therapy room.

That will be a place for students to be able to practice safe skills before they go into the hospital setting.

We can determine competency there.

As the Jacksons are lauded for their service to the university.

It's a tremendous honor and we're humbled by it.

Students say they're excited to get to work.

You just see the impact that they've had on the campus, on the people here, and it's just amazing to see that.

I'm also going to be a graduate of Murray State.

Like they have been.

Classes begin at Jackson Hall on October 12th.

For Kentucky edition I'm Laura Rogers.

Murray State offers a Bachelor of Science in nursing along with graduate and doctoral degrees in the field.