Med Center expansions
This semester was all about expansion and evolution at the Vanderbilt Medical Center. Beginning Sept. 1, the Vanderbilt University Medical Center implemented a smoking ban that prohibits smoking on any part of the campus. This ban will extend to the newest addition to the Med Center, a clinic facility at the 100 Oaks Mall complex. The new facility will include 19 clinics and revolutionary technology like check-in kiosks and pagers that will allow patients to peruse the mall while waiting for their appointment. The first set of clinics is set to move in February 2009. With new space opening up on the Medical Center main campus and a $20 million dollar gift from the Carell family, the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital will begin an expansion in 2009 that will roughly double the hospital's accommodations.

Innovative science programs
Meanwhile, Vanderbilt University continued to improve its international standing in science. The physics department's participation in research being conducted at CERN, a facility that houses the Large Hadron Collider, placed Vanderbilt at the cutting edge of physics experimentation with dark matter and extra dimensions. The Vanderbilt-Fisk Ph.D. bridge program is set to make Vanderbilt the No. 1 producer of minority Ph.D.s in the country by 2011. Vanderbilt also established the new Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment, which will offer an interdisciplinary graduate degree that combines Earth and environmental studies with civil engineering.