ETSU intends to open a satellite campus in Strawberry Plains for fall 2015.
“We’re hoping that it will add new students, and we plan to start some programs in conjunction with Pellissippi State Community College,” said Rick Osborn, dean of continuing studies and academic outreach.
Essentially, ETSU plans to open up opportunities for advanced learning on the Pellissippi State campus. Pellissippi State Community College has a relatively large student body, boasting 11,259 students as of 2011, compared to Northeast State Community College’s 6,446 in 2012.
“Our goal is to offer three undergraduate programs and two graduate programs,” Osborn said. “We’re still looking to identify those. We hope to have around 75-100 students when we open up the campus.”
Much like Northeast State, Pellissippi State has a lot to offer someone looking to start a college career, but ETSU hopes its satellite campus will offer more opportunities for students who intend to further their academic careers.
“We’ll be using space in Pellissippi State,” Osborn said.
“We’ll have an office and one dedicated classroom to start with, and we’ll add additional classrooms as we need it.”
ETSU will not be offering lower level courses at the Strawberry Plains campus.
“We will be offering Junior and Senior level courses, as well as graduate level classes,” Osborn said. “If you would, picture ETSU having an office and offering programs at Northeast State for advanced education.”
During a Staff Senate meeting held at ETSU this past November, Brian Bennet, president-elect of the staff Senate, said ETSU would be holding its first class at the Strawberry Plains campus January 2016.
The office is projected to be open in March.
According to the Staff Senate meeting minutes, the programs being considered for Strawberry Plains include: a BS in Mass Communication, a BS in Psychology, a cohort of the Ed.D — which will include a BS in Special Education and a BS in Early Childhood — and a BS in Computer Science.
Staffing for the site is expected to start soon, with a site coordinator to start relationship development with Pellissippi State Community College in Spring 2015. Staffing will grow as enrollment needs increase.
“How well this campus does will depend on how well we spread the word and how effective we are at recruiting students,” Osborn said.
