DeSales Gets $7 Million State Grant for Gambet Center

With the help of a $7 million state grant, DeSales University in Upper Saucon Township plans to break ground in July on a $22.4 million building that will enable it to expand its medical education and business programs.

The 65,000 square-foot building is to be called the Gambet Center after former DeSales’ president, the Rev. Daniel Gambet. The university hopes the new facility will enable it to double the number of nurses and physician assistants it graduates each year and increase the numbers of undergraduates earning business degrees and graduate students receiving a master’s of business administration.

Last week, Lehigh County commissioners had the first reading of the ordinance to approve the $7 million state “pass through” grant from the Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program for the project. Cindy Feinberg, the county’s director of community and economic development, provided information that DeSales is planning to add 20 more full-time faculty positions at an average salary of $70,000 and 15 full-time support staff with average salaries of $35,000. 

Taking into account the earning power of physician assistants, nurses, MBAs and others who will be graduating from DeSales programs at the Gambet Center, Feinberg said the increase in Pennsylvania payroll withholding taxes is estimated at about $877,000. 

And the region will get badly needed nurses and physicians assistants, according to County Commissioner Gloria Hamm, who is a retired nurse.

“There is a nursing shortage and most of the graduates of this program have stayed in the area so it’s also an economic boost,” she said. “They’re going to have to build the building and use contractors and carpenters etc., that will help the economy.”

Later Hamm said DeSales’ physician assistants program is among the top in the country.

The university expects to go from graduating 72 students with bachelor’s degrees in nursing to 140. It plans to increase its physician assistant program graduates from 40 to 80, according to information supplied to the county.

The Gambet Center is part of DeSales’ $30 million capital campaign. The college has an enrollment of 1,561 full-time undergraduate day students and a total enrollment of 2,449, according to its web site.