MUSC to build $73 million student health facility on Clemson University campus
Clemson University and the Medical University of South Carolina are partnering to build a $73 million health facility on the Upstate college campus.
The 90,000-square-foot facility will replace the 56-year-old Redfern Health Center and will serve students on campus.
“The facility will offer a wide range of clinical services and include necessary support departments such as laboratory services, radiology, and a retail pharmacy,” according to documents submitted to the State Fiscal Accountability Authority, which approved the project Tuesday.
The Redfern Health Center was built in 1969, when Clemson had about 6,700 students. Enrollment is now at more than 29,000 undergraduate and graduate students, but Redfern has not been significantly expanded or renovated since its construction.
“An expanded and more modern health center will enable the university to deliver the highest level of service for the expanding student body to implement additional services and programs as needed,” SFAA documents say. “This move will also support the long-range strategy to use the central part of the campus for academic needs.”
MUSC plans to offer primary care, mental health counseling, radiology, pharmacy, physical therapy and telehealth out of the facility.
MUSC CEO Dr. Patrick Cawley said construction is expected to start in the next few months and last 18 months before the outpatient facility is completed.
“It’s an ambulatory facility, it doesn’t require the code of a hospital. So these things can be put up fairly quickly,” Cawley said.
MUSC already works closely with Clemson, which includes working with the school’s athletic program.
“This is just the result of a partnership that we’ve been working on probably seven years now, where we just started with some services at student health, some services for athletic health,” Cawley said. “Slowly but surely, you start doing other things, and you get to the point (of), let’s take it up a level. A new facility is badly needed up there, and we feel pretty good about being able to do it.”
MUSC and Clemson are sharing the cost of constructing the facility. MUSC will put in $58.5 million. Clemson will put in about $11.5 million from existing grant money. Clemson also will be responsible for paying $3 million for site improvements, SFAA documents say.
The facility will house the Human Performance Research Center, documents say, and will initially serve students before expanding to staff and community members.
“The most important thing to Clemson right now is students, and then the others can be added over time,” Cawley said.
This story was originally published June 10, 2025 at 4:00 PM.
