Moving to the New Campus!

We began moving The College of Medicine and Health Sciences (COMHS) into its new campus at the former Orange Grove Hotel on 31-AUG-07. The main page has a photo of the swimming pool in front of one of the main buildings at the new campus. Click on the "Latest News" link to get more info and more photos. This move was a long time coming, and we are all excited that it has finally come. There is an enormous amount of work to do to get the campus ready, but it's a good feeling to be here!

Short version of a long story: The Orange Grove Hotel was a resort hotel on St. Lucia. After 9/11, tourism dropped off dramatically in the Caribbean for several months. The Orange Grove Hotel was one of the casualties. The fellow who owned it went bankrupt. The receiver in the bankruptcy was the accouting firm of Price Waterhouse, which of course tried to sell the hotel. The College made an offer, and PW accepted it. The former owner filed a lawsuit claiming that PW sold the hotel for too low a price. Anything over and above the amount owed to the holder of the former mortgage plus PW's fees would, of course, go to the former owner, and he tried very hard to make his point in court. I understand why he filed suit. He was just a businessperson trying to protect his interests, but his suit had no merit.

The case dragged through the local court system for a very long time. He lost twice and appealed those losses, but on the second appeal, the court ruled against him for the third and last time. He could no longer appeal, and we could move in. We had expected to move into the hotel in February, and here it is September. But we're finally here!!

The new campus is a few miles south of our temporary campus on the Rodney Bay Marina, a few miles north of the capital of Castries. The new campus is located on top of a hill on the Caribbean side of the island. We have great views in all four directions, although there is another hill between us and the Caribbean Sea itself. We also have strong breezes much of the time that help to alleviate the heat and humidity. As long as you don't have to move too much, it is pleasant to sit outside, especially in the shade or after the sun goes down ... when the mosquitos become a problem, but that's another story.

I have been in my new room just over 48 hours now. It has air conditioning, which is a big win. Most apartments down here don't, including the apartment I was living in near the temporary campus. It was a very nice apartment, but it's tough to study when you are dripping sweat on the text.

I am the Resident Adviser (RA), just like we had in dorms in college, so I get my room for free, which is also a big win. (It's good to be the Alpha Male. Also, the administration knows that my budget is very tight, and they're trying to help as much as they can, which is much appreciated—they also gave me a scholarship to pay half my tuition while I am here, a scholarship that was funded specifically to help students who are committed to practicing medicine in medically underserved areas) No tv in my room yet, but I don't watch much anyway. Lots of stuff such as tvs seems to have been looted when the property was unoccupied. And of course, the hotel rooms were designed to be hotel rooms, not dormitory apartments, so we have to do some remodeling to accomodate a kitchenette with a small refrigerator and microwave.

The school is on top of a very large hill. It takes 8 hard minutes to walk to the bottom and 8 harder minutes to walk up (you'd think that it would take longer to walk uphill than down, but it doesn't). There is a small grocery store about a half-mile south of the point where the road down the hill meets the main road between Rodney Bay and Castries. So, I can walk to the store every morning and get just what I need for the day until the kitchenettes are set up. All in all, a reasonable temporary situation. I'm moving the darned rubber tree plant, and ain't nuthin' and ain't nobody gonna stop me.