WMU moves forward on expansion in Florida

Western Michigan University is moving forward with plans to have a larger academic footprint in Florida.

WMU’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday approved a recommendation to authorize the university to seek a provisional license from the Florida Department of Education so that WMU can have a “physical presence in that state for the possible expansion of select academic programs to locations in southwest Florida,” college officials said.

The area WMU is eyeing for possible expansion is in the Punta Gorda, Charlotte County area, WMU Executive Director of University Relations Cheryl P. Roland said. The WMU-Cooley Law School operates a campus in Riverview, Fla., near Tampa.

A big piece of the proposal involves WMU’s College of Aviation, which is looking to build a hangar north of the Punta Gorda Airport and rent classroom space from Florida Southwestern State College for its programs.

College of Aviation Dean Dave Powell said he wants to have a presence in Florida, where the school can have an international private pilot training program that benefits from the state’s flying-friendly weather. Currently, there is no international program at WMU’s Battle Creek site.

“Truthfully ... if you’re going to do nothing but flight training, you’ve got to be able to deliver that competitively in about a 12-month period,” Powell said. “With the weather being challenging like it is here, it just doesn’t make sense to try to do one here.”

Powell said he also wants domestic students to benefit from WMU flight programs at the Florida site, and give students the chance to earn four-year degrees in flight science.

“I’m really good at recruiting north of the Mason-Dixon line,” Powell said. “We do have a few students from the Southeast but very, very few. If I can grow that presence and capture enrollment, tuition dollars and that type of thing ... all of it benefits my college, whether I’ve got a presence here, a presence in Florida or a presence anywhere else.”

The college is looking to build a hangar on the north side of the Punta Gorda Airport, a project that could cost up to $2.5 million. Powell said the college would use university reserves and no state dollars would be used for the project.

“I’m not going to build a school, I’m going to build a hangar to train our pilots on,” Powell said.

Originally, officials were looking at a vacant waterfront building in Punta Gorda that once contained a private college for the project but Powell said that proposal is off the table at this point.

The price for the massive building, Powell said, totaled about $6 million.

“We just don’t want to start that big,” Powell said. “We’re going to start out small, prove the concept that we can do this.”

Along with the College of Aviation’s proposals, the Florida initiative also addresses two other items, according to board documents. While the College of Health and Human Services wants to “advance delivery” of its programs, WMU’s Extended University Programs “is focused to expand off-site delivery.”

Extended University Programs Associate Provost Dawn Gaymer said if approvals from the state of Florida come through, the college could eventually bring face-to-face programs to the state that would be geared to working adult students in programs such as health and wellness. The approvals would also allow the college to strengthen its online programs in Florida.

Gaymer said the state with the third-highest number of WMU alumni is Florida.

“For our department, it connects the university to where we have brand strength to support online enrollment and to help the university in creating more research opportunities and strengthen our national reputation for our academic programs,” Gaymer said.

Contact Safiya Merchant at 269-966-0684 or smerchant@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow her on Twitter: @SafiyaMerchant