Good universities and colleges share much in common with hospitals. The best among them are constantly growing, shifting and changing to meet the current needs of the audiences they serve.

For hospitals, all of their motivations should be about improving patient care. That single determinant must be the benchmark against which all decisions are judged.

For colleges, a similar focus on the students is in order. What’s best for the students should always be the goal of the day.

Ironically, in our area the local college and the needs of the healthcare industry have crossed paths.

We’ve often said that our community is fortunate to have the wonderful resources of Copiah-Lincoln Community College’s Natchez campus.

And we can see further evidence of that in the plans to begin construction on Co-Lin’s new health sciences building.

Plans for the building are tied to the anticipated need for growth in the health care industry — it’s a need that Co-Lin has worked hard to fill for sometime.

But their quick moves have caused some elbow bumping on the Natchez campus. As the health sciences curriculum has grown, classroom space has stayed the same. They’ve turned labs into classes and closets into simulation rooms.

But now, with funds freed up from paying off an existing building, the funds are in place to remedy the problems once and for all.

We’re excited by the plans for the new building at Co-Lin Natchez, but we’re more excited by the possibilities it brings through helping better educate a new generation of healthcare professionals.