Drexel U. Opens a New Campus — in California

Drexel U., California style: The university’s new Center for Graduate Studies. (Drexel U. photo)

Drexel University has been expanding quite aggressively in the past several years. Recent news has included the university’s $500-million construction plan for dorms and athletic centers, and a rumor that the university would buy The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s building.

But the university’s latest expansion is a stretch, geographically and otherwise. This week, Drexel opened a new center for graduate studies — in Sacramento, Calif., some 2,700 miles from its main campus in Philadelphia. The university expects to sink more than $10-million into the economy in Sacramento to get the new campus started, and it is also planning to open another campus in Roseville, a Sacramento suburb.

The course offerings will mainly appeal to working adults. The new classroom facilities contain about $1-million in various distance-education features — such as technologies that link students to professors and classmates in Philadelphia — along with SmartBoards and other, more conventional classroom gadgets. Some of the rooms also have technology that will automatically record lectures and class activity and convert the audio files into podcasts.