The New England Institute of Technology (NEIT) has found its new frontier and it is wide open, both figuratively and literally. Their new home, a 280,000-square foot campus in East Greenwich at 1408 Division Road, comes equipped with unique features, including simulation rooms with talking mannequins and High Definition television studios.

“Our new nursing simulation lab is probably one of the coolest things here,” said Douglas Sherman, the associate provost and special assistant to the president, during a recent tour. “I don’t think you’ll find this level of a nursing lab anywhere else in Rhode Island. The mannequins breathe, talk, have heart rates, and you can see all their vital signs.”

The faculty has computers that allow them to run different simulations from a patient having a bad cough to flat lining, in which case the students have to perform CPR and bring them back to life. The faculty simulates the mannequin to talk, letting students know their symptoms. Students then ask questions in order to make diagnoses or administer proper treatments.

“They are being recorded on three cameras so they get three different angles of the students and how they respond,” said Sherman. “They capture the video so they can run it back and talk to the students step-by-step and critique how the students responded. Any mistakes are made here and not in the actual hospital room.”

While Sherman said the nursing simulation room cost “roughly $500,000” to create, they invested $1 million on two High Definition (HD) television studios that feature the most advanced technology and equipment. In fact, Channel 10 WJAR is the only other facility in the state that has the same studio.

“The two HD television studios, complete with a control room, are for our video and radio production students,” he said. “Those have acoustic flooring and labs so students can set up and tape talk shows for projects and have different high-efficiency LED lighting options. We pride ourselves on simulating the actual work environments so when the students walk into their actual work environments, they won’t feel intimidated because they’ve been exposed to it here.”

Governor Lincoln Chafee visited the campus and marveled at the simulated rooms. He said Rhode Island is fortunate to have many great colleges, with NEIT being one of them.

“The nursing training rooms with the speaking mannequins and the simulated TV studio have the best technology and equipment,” said Chafee. “They are taking a giant leap forward for their students in their path and growth at each step.”

In addition to the nursing program, they offer four other ally health programs, including surgical technology; clinical medical assisting; physical therapy; and occupational therapy.

“Our occupational therapy students have a full-functioning kitchen, a mock bathroom, and different types of beds patients might be in so they learn the skills to integrate somebody back into their living environment if they are coming out of rehabilitation or a hospital,” Sherman said. “They also work with disabled students who are having trouble developing.”

NEIT, which offers Associate and Bachelor degrees in more than 35 programs, also offers a Master’s degree in occupational therapy. It is the first Master’s degree offered at NEIT and became available to students a year ago.

“We’re pretty excited about the Master’s degrees and we plan on offering more,” Sherman said. “I think the next one will be the Master’s in nursing.”

Classes began in the main building last November with 90 nursing students taking courses. In January, the North Wing opened, with the South Wing opening on July 18.

“We had our first set of students already graduate from our nursing program on June 4th and most of them have already passed their nursing certification exams,” said Sherman. “There’s a specialized accreditation that requires 80 percent of graduating students to pass the exam in order for us to maintain our accreditation so they’ve already achieved that and that’s great news for us.”

NEIT also has a closed circuit radio station they are hoping to soon broadcast via the web. They are working on obtaining the appropriate licensing for it.

Further, while the library at the Post Road campus is approximately 9,000 square feet, the library at the new campus is 27,000 square feet. It features 70 computers in the main area; 40 computers in a separate lab; and two high-technology collaboration rooms that house up to six students each.

“It’s three times the size of what we have on Post Road,” Sherman said. “Students can go in with their laptops and connect them via a cord that allows them to display their laptop screens on large screens on the wall. East Greenwich residents can come to the library. I think the agreement is if they have an East Greenwich library card, they can visit.”

In one of those collaboration rooms, a handful of Game Development Simulation Programming students worked on a group project together. They said they are pleased about the new campus.

Trevor Soreo from Springfield, Mass., who is set to graduate in a few weeks, said he was impressed with the facility.

“I like it better than the old campus,” he said. “Everything is easier to access and the collaboration rooms are extremely helpful.”

Morganne Crosby of Cranston, another student set to graduate, agreed. She is grateful the college focused on the needs of students.

“I felt that we were the first priority when it came to building the new campus,” she said. “We started coming here in January and saw that the classrooms were the first things being built so we would have space and equipment. That was really important to me.”

The new facility is the third for NEIT, which is a 71-year-old private, nonprofit, accredited technical college with 3,300 students.

In 2007 and 2008, the college purchased the vacant Brooks-Eckerd corporate headquarters for $30 million to build the new campus. Because the company never occupied the building, as Rite Aid Corp. acquired it, it was sold to NEIT and the college began making modifications, which cost an additional $30 million. They also spent another $40 million to obtain 220 acres surrounding the college, with plans of constructing student dorms and more academic buildings as they grow enrollments.

Further, Sherman said the new campus is in the process of applying for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design status, or LEED certification, as all materials in the building are recyclable. They segregated various materials during construction and recycled every last piece.

“The way Rite Aid built it was not even close to the way we needed it so we stripped out everything that they put in, down to the steel studs,” said Sherman. “We estimate that we took out 500,000 pounds of construction debris before we even started building for our needs. None of it went to the dump in Johnston and that’s a good thing.”

To cut costs and help them achieve LEED certification, the college captures all rainwater from the roof and funnels it to their pond. They use it to irrigate trees and plants on their property.

Also, the paint used in the interior has low levels of volatile organic compounds or VOC, which are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids.

“When you use a paint that is not VOC, you get that strong smell,” he said. “We didn’t have any smell in this building.”

Moreover, all classroom spaces have motion sensors, which help to save energy. If there is no motion in the room for a period of time, the lights will automatically turn off.

“It’s a nice feature,” Sherman said. “Energy conservation is a big thing.”

As part of the demolition process, the college created an atrium and skylights, providing natural lighting. The Rite Aid configuration consisted of solid floors, a solid ceiling, and parameter offices, with cubicle farms in the interior of the building.

Sherman said they were unable to apply for platinum or gold status due to the exterior of the facility.

“We started with an existing structure and had no say in the types of materials and how they assembled the actual structure,” he said. “The LEED certification and the people that monitored our progress do so under a certain set of requirements for existing buildings that are being retrofitted versus a building being done from scratch. Had the building been done from scratch, we probably could have achieved platinum or gold. The only thing we had control over is what we put in the interior of the building.”

NEIT President Richard Gouse, who Sherman said is the second longest standing private college president in the country, said he thinks the New England Institute of Technology is “the Harvard of technical schools.”