Construction of the first building for Stark State College’s new Akron Campus is nearing completion. School President Para Jones took a tour to see how things are coming together.
May 26th is the grand opening of the new building, but Jones says by design just two of the building’s three floors will be in use, at first.
“We sort of planned to finish the third floor off after we had a better sense of the market and what students want. Then we can customize the learning space based on that. So we will be finishing this third floor over the next 18 months after this opens.
She says recent projections of student response are encouraging.
“We will have capacity when we open this for 1,500 students. And that’s for fall of '18. As we finish this then, our goal is 5,000 students in five years.”
Cost projections for the initial construction at the 13-acre campus are just under $16 million.
