BC3 shows off LindenPointe
HERMITAGE — Butler County Community College is embracing its role as a regional school with the opening of its expanded building at LindenPointe Innovative Business Campus in Hermitage.
“We are very proud to be Butler County’s community college,” Nick Neupauer, president, said Thursday. “But we also recognize that we have a role, as one of Pennsylvania’s 14 community colleges, to provide affordable, accessible education in areas without community colleges.”
BC3 celebrated the first semester of classes in the expanded facility with an open house Thursday night. Spring classes begin Tuesday at all of BC3’s campuses.
Enrollment at LindenPointe is up 27.6 percent from last year with 324 students, Neupauer said.
Students outside of Butler County pay twice the tuition Butler County residents do to attend BC3, Neupauer said. Out-of-state students pay three times the tuition Butler County residents do, Neupauer said.
LindenPointe itself is a 115-acre technical park funded by Hermitage and private developers. In addition to the college, the park has a mix of medical, financial and technology companies.
BC3@LindenPointe is a single building that was expanded from 4,000 to 20,000 square feet at a cost of $3.2 million, plus $400,000 in furnishings.
Three existing classrooms were upgraded, and five more were added, including a new science laboratory where anatomy and physiology classes will be offered.
The college also can access two other city-owned buildings in the park, one of which is still under construction, to use as training facilities, Neupauer said.
The BC3 Education Foundation financed the BC3@LindenPointe expansion and bought about four additional acres where the college may construct a second building if enrollment reaches at least 750 students.
“This is a really rich area for possible expansion,” Neupauer said.
BC3@LindenPoint, like BC3@Lawrence Crossing in New Castle, is close to major highways and the Ohio state line, Neupauer said. As was expected, Ohio residents’ enrollment at BC3 campuses has grown from 17 to 25 students, he said.
Although there are seven four-year colleges within 25 miles of Hermitage, Neupauer is confident that BC3 is a good addition to the educational mix.
Among the relationships BC3 has with four-year colleges, Neupauer pointed out that BC3 has a good one with Slippery Rock University and has partnered with Youngstown State University “for years.”
“Don’t view us as competition,” Neupauer said, “view BC3 as a partner.”
BC3 hopes to finalize a degree completion program agreement with Thiel College, he said. Under this arrangement, four-year colleges offer junior and senior year classes on a BC3 campus.
Thiel is in Greenville, Mercer County, which is north of Hermitage.
In addition to its main campus in Butler Township and its Cranberry campus and those in Mercer and Lawrence counties, BC3 offers classes to students in 11 northern counties that form the Education Consortium of the Upper Allegheny.
BC3@Upper Allegheny serves Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Crawford, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, McKean, Potter, Venango and Warren counties.
